Jay we all know that your pile of stones makes this stack look like bread crumbs in comparison.
Maybe my kidney stones..........
Jay we all know that your pile of stones makes this stack look like bread crumbs in comparison.
Just a quick check, will these sharpening stones require anything special for flattening or can I use a DMT on them?
HI Dave, and thanks for taking part!!
So ... for us straight razor guys, we're used to lapping our hones on an almost constant basis to maintain the uber-flat surface that razor honing needs. How often (if at all) do we lap these knife-honing stones? And what's a good item to use for lapping? (I have a DMT diamond grit 325 plate for lapping ...)
I like to keep my knife sharpening stones flat but they don't need to stay nearly as flat as your razor stones do. I simply let the stone tell me when it needs lapping and then I do. If I see a lot of steel showing on the surface, if I feel grooves or wear marks, or it's just been a couple of knife sharpenings I will flatten my stones. I don't make a religion out of it but I am more pro-active with lapping than most knife sharpeners and I think that's because I've come to realize that it's a lot easier to lap a little bit often than a lot every now and then, plus I've experienced that if you let a stone begin to dish it begins to wear at a much greater rate as the dishing becomes worse so it's best to not let it dish at all.
My preference for stone lapping is diamond plates, the coarser the better. I can't stand fine plates that stick through suction (aka - sticktion) to the stones while I'm lapping, this drives me nuts. In the past I've used DMT plates (120x) but in the last year or so I've switched over to the Japanese made ATOMA 140x plate. The ATOMA plates are more expensive but have some key features that make them superior. The surface is made up of tiny posts that have the diamonds embedded into them which leaves the areas around the post to become channels that work in preventing the sticktion effect from occurring. This doesn't word for every stone but it's at least 50% better than DMT's in this regard. Also, the plate is comprised on two parts, the base and diamond surface pad, the latter being replaceable at a lower cost. For use on knives I also prefer the ATOMA plates since they cut faster yet are far less aggressive causing zero edge fracturing which is a problem that I've seen commonly with DMT plate use on hard thin Japanese knives.
As I mentioned above my preference for stone flattening is a coarse diamond plate (140x) but I've found that finer grit stones work more efficiently if their surface is smoothed over so for stone in the >4k range I follow the diamond plate with a 6000x synthetic nagura. I chose to use a nagura because it doesn't stick but a finer grit ATOMA plate like the ATOMA 600x would also work great here as well.
Thanks for your questions.
Dave
One question ... how do I use the 6000x synthetic nagura? From its size, I would expect to lay the stone down, and then rub the nagura on top of it, kind of like using a giant slurry stone. Is that about the size of it?
You have the use 100% correct. The only thing I'd add is to rinse the stone's surface after use to make sure that the slurry has been removed.
Just a quick check, will these sharpening stones require anything special for flattening or can I use a DMT on them?
It's ridiculous, why am I more excited about having 3 new hones than really sharp kitchen knives?
The 1200 is a big, beautiful hone.....and may also see some bevel setting activity on the razors (especially circles). The 500 is really coarse. The 5000 is on a nice high base, and should last several lifetimes. Off to watch the video.
As a short term solution you can use sandpaper on a flat surface (like glass, granite, marble, etc) to lap your stones on. This isn't ideal for sure but it's cheap and does work.
As a short term solution you can use sandpaper on a flat surface (like glass, granite, marble, etc) to lap your stones on. This isn't ideal for sure but it's cheap and does work.
Can you expand on this a little? Wet/dry . . . 120 grit sandpaper? 60?
I just want to add how important it is to ease the edges of the stones before using them as part of the flattening process.
Awesome!
Got my stones toady, amongst a few other goodies, though Canada Post feel the need to hit me for taxes . Hopefully I will have the chance to watch some of the DVD this week. Gotta admit I'm excited to sharpen up my knives, though my kitchen knives are still razor sharp, so I'm afraid to mess them up. I see some very sharp pocket and camping knives in my future though.
Thanks again Dave!