Thread: Home made Hone flaterner

So i have a 1000/220 grit hone, nothing special i got it from wipped dog.com After reestablishing my razors edge and give a few knifes there life back, i notice that the edges are worn down. I looked up this on the internet and saw these stone flateners and i thought you know i paid 8 dollors for this if i break it, so what. So i went to my basement and grabbed some sand paper, and started doing to work at the stone. But then i realized that i have an old style belt sander. After setten the stone on a flat surface, i just went to town on the stone. and it seems to have worked, i am not sure if this is wise to do on like a new Norton stone but if you don't really care about the possible break in a stone this could world well.

Ive never heard of using a belt sander to lap a hone. I guess in theory it could work, but I would be apprehensive about using it. Firstly, I feel like it would remove too much material. You only really need to remove a few millimeters to lap a hone. Secondly, you have to make sure the sanding surface is totally flat, otherwise that defeats the purpose. Are you using grid lines on your hone while lapping?

Well the hone was really worn down, and the hand sand paper was going to slow and yes i do agree maybe the sander was a little over the top.

I can relate, I went through a couple pieces of 400 wet/dry lapping my 4/8k norton the other day. It took much longer than I expected. I decided to bite the bullet and buy a lapping stone.

Originally Posted by Zargart

So i have a 1000/220 grit hone, nothing special i got it from wipped dog.com After reestablishing my razors edge and give a few knifes there life back, i notice that the edges are worn down. I looked up this on the internet and saw these stone flateners and i thought you know i paid 8 dollors for this if i break it, so what. So i went to my basement and grabbed some sand paper, and started doing to work at the stone. But then i realized that i have an old style belt sander. After setten the stone on a flat surface, i just went to town on the stone. and it seems to have worked, i am not sure if this is wise to do on like a new Norton stone but if you don't really care about the possible break in a stone this could world well.

Hmm belt sander.
Some have a wide belt and a well machined flat steel bed
turn off the power and give it a couple licks. If it is
wide enough use a figure eight pattern. If the belt begins
to clog sand a bit of wood... Then turn off the power and
revisit the hone.

No need to use power tools on a hone, Except perhaps
for the Chinese 12K.

all that grit getting into the bearings is gonna do the sander a lot of good.

you can use it but after you done with belt sander you will need more flat surface and sandpaper to put final surface.

+1 to what hibud says, Also be careful not to generate too much heat or you could crack your stone.
MIke

Best thing is to, if your set on using a belt sander is to go a little at a time, very short burst's on the belt and when it get's close finish with the sand paper to help make certain you didn't go to far. Of course your stripeing the stones surface with lines from a pencil 1'st, right?? When the lines are gone you are done.
The best way would be to get a full wave motor control[to make certain to not loose to much power when slowing down a power tool], then you could slow down the belt and guard against "Over Lapping".
You can get 400 and 600 Grit belts from Jantz knife supply, that would be better than useing the typical 120grit or rougher belts found on many from the distributer sanders.
Thanks for letting me give what little advice, I have on the subject.

As ever, tinkersd or SRP!!!!