Thread: humped stone

yeah, I can not flatten my stone. its humped in the middle and makes it hard to hone. i tried using a different stone, but it wont flatten out. Do I need to buy MORE stuff, or can I use a file or something?

What did you used to lapp it with? I would use lower grit sand paper (100), then I would do a progression of sand paper (after it was ballpark level) up to 400- 600 if 8k or lower and 1000 if higher than 8k. I used the back side of my dmt 325 to do a similar progression on a natural stone, but you could use any flat surface, like slab of granite, chunk of flat tile or any surface that you could veryfy is flat. Double O

every razor rocks in the middle so I know its humped.

you mean just use sand paper ON the flat surface and rub away with the stone?

They all flatten by lapping. Some take more time than others. I'm talking some take hours not minutes to flatten. Double O

Originally Posted by lamppa

you mean just use sand paper ON the flat surface and rub away with the stone?

Yes, check the lapping section on the wiki here.

Dry/wet sandpaper.

I can search and find things ( I just searched and found the tutorial, thank you) but where is the wiki section?
how do I get there?

Even the ones that come flat need lapping with time used. That's why a lot of honers buy lapping plates. Make it easier to flatten new and well used stones. If you are going to do only one or two stones on the cheap, then use sand paper. I had to use a sand paper progression on a natural, because I wasn't going to buy a whole set of lapping plates. Once it is lapped, it only needs maintenance lapping and that is easily done with a DMT 325 or an Atoma 400 or a special lapping plate (first two are diamond hones used as lapping plates). Double O

You would hope they would come flat but that is the exception, not the rule.

To lap a stone: Get some 220 grit wet and dry automotive sandpaper and a good flat surface. I use the kitchen counter. Use a pencil to mark lines across the stone in both a lengthwise and crosswise fashion creating a grid. Get both the stone and the sandpaper wet, place the paper face up on the countertop and put the stone face/grid down on the paper. Use back and forth as well as circular motions until the grid lines from the pencil are gone. Flat stone!