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Discussion Thread for Chinese 12K Review...

I feel the fool. My eyes skipped right over the link in the review the first 2 times I read through it. Thanks!
 
I bought it and it came last Friday. I lapped it with the diamond course plate (also thanks to Joel).

I honed up a couple of, already sharp razors. I got a modest improvement. I wasn't satisfied. I then lapped my stones on the diamond plate and rehoned from the 4k Norton up the Chinese 12k. Boy what a difference. I think the consistent progression of flat hones made the difference when I got to the 12k. the lightly wet Chinese 12k really brought the razor to a new level of smooth edge for me.

Both the diamond plate and the 12k fit on the norton box

Thanks
 
I bought it and it came last Friday. I lapped it with the diamond course plate (also thanks to Joel).

I honed up a couple of, already sharp razors. I got a modest improvement. I wasn't satisfied. I then lapped my stones on the diamond plate and rehoned from the 4k Norton up the Chinese 12k. Boy what a difference. I think the consistent progression of flat hones made the difference when I got to the 12k. the lightly wet Chinese 12k really brought the razor to a new level of smooth edge for me.

Both the diamond plate and the 12k fit on the norton box

Thanks

Glad it helped!

Really a neat hone, no? For $30, it's REALLY hard to go wrong.
 
I'm on my way to Woodcraft to buy a 12,000 Chinese stone. The guy at the store says that a Norton flattening stone will lap one of these. Is this true or do I need a diamond plate?

Randy
 
I'm on my way to Woodcraft to buy a 12,000 Chinese stone. The guy at the store says that a Norton flattening stone will lap one of these. Is this true or do I need a diamond plate?

Randy


I am pretty sure that I remember Lynn saying that he used his Norton lapping stone to lap all his stones including his Chinese 12K. Although I was never in love with the surface that the Norton left on any of my stones, it did flatten everything that I used it on and I don't see any problem with using it on the Chinese 12K. After I purchased my DMT C 325 grit, I sold the Norton because I much preffered the smooth surface that the DMT left on my stones. If you lap the surface of your Chinese 12K and find the surface a little rougher than you like, then I would recommend finishing with 1000 grit sandpaper on a flat block or tile to smooth things out a little.
 
I'm on my way to Woodcraft to buy a 12,000 Chinese stone. The guy at the store says that a Norton flattening stone will lap one of these. Is this true or do I need a diamond plate?

Randy

Randy,
I'd use the diamond lapping plate... but that's just me.
 
As it happens, I lapped mine on my DMT 1200 plate last night. It made it flat, but it left a few deep scratches (high spots on the plate, I guess), so I ended up removing those scratches on 320, then 600 wet/dry sandpaper. If I was doing it again, I'd just skip the DMT because the sandpaper would have made it flat in a few minutes anyway . . .
 
Thanks for the help. Should have a flat stone tonite. This stuff is making me wierd. I shouldn't look forward to going home to flatten my stone should I?

Randy
 
As it happens, I lapped mine on my DMT 1200 plate last night. It made it flat, but it left a few deep scratches (high spots on the plate, I guess), so I ended up removing those scratches on 320, then 600 wet/dry sandpaper. If I was doing it again, I'd just skip the DMT because the sandpaper would have made it flat in a few minutes anyway . . .

I don't know if your DMT is new, but if it is I read that it is a good idea to break it in with some scrap metal, since they do tend to have small unevennesses on them.
 
Okay, I was happy enough with my set-up but now I'm wondering if I might get better results incorporating the 12k into my routine between the King 6k and the Flexcut gold or Green Chromium paste. Is it worth the $$$ to add this?

Now, before I go further, I will say that I don't have any further razor acquisitions planned. I've got around four that are waiting for some TLC and will eventually be honed and in the rotation, but after that I've got nothing new on the horizon, and don't see that changing anytime soon.
 
Price notwithstanding, is the ceramic Shapton 12K that much better than the the Chinese 12K? I know the Shapton costs almost 3x as much. Thanks.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
I'm on my way to Woodcraft to buy a 12,000 Chinese stone. The guy at the store says that a Norton flattening stone will lap one of these. Is this true or do I need a diamond plate?

Randy

I seem to recall hearing somewhere that the Norton flattening stone was fine for the Norton hones, but shouldn't be used for other stuff. This may have been in reference to a yellow coticle, or who knows. Anyhow, the impression I got was that if you are only going to lapp a Norton, the Norton Flattener is okay, but if you are going to branch out into other hones, get a diamond plate (and skip the Norton Flattener, as the diamond plate can do Norton hones too.)
 
I seem to recall hearing somewhere that the Norton flattening stone was fine for the Norton hones, but shouldn't be used for other stuff. This may have been in reference to a yellow coticle, or who knows. Anyhow, the impression I got was that if you are only going to lapp a Norton, the Norton Flattener is okay, but if you are going to branch out into other hones, get a diamond plate (and skip the Norton Flattener, as the diamond plate can do Norton hones too.)

+1

The norton flatening stone is far too coarse to get a good surface on the 12k. The final surface must not only be flat for polishing stones, but also smooth. I generally flatten the surface of mine with a 325 grit diamond hone, then I use my 750 diamond and both sides of my norton 4k/8k to progressively polish the surface until it's smooth. This technique also has the advantage of smoothing and flatening my Norton's 8k side, which I find makes a difference.
 
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