@Xcyte
What's the progression you are planning on?
@Xcyte
If you have some ways of getting good use out of your new Atoma (reprofiling axes, thinning out your kitchen knives, sharpening your chisels, lapping stones, etc.) I'd suggest doing that first. I remember fresh DMT being very rough and shed a lot of diamond particles, though I hear Atoma is better so you got a head start there.
1) Sounds about right. I don't check for level. In diamond plate, we trust.
2) Sure, a real twofer. Raise a slurry, and remove scratches at the same time. Maybe rinse off first slurry after lapping.
3) You'll end up with a matte surface after lapping.
Looks like you already spent a bunch of dough, so I'll just throw in another shopping suggestion.
Get some way of looking at the bevel, either a lighted-loupe or a usb microscope.
IMHO, most sharpening is fairly simple. You need to get an apex. The rest is just minor details.
Godspeed!
Edit: Let me clarify the last sentence. Let's say you spent like 100 dollars on 1k and 300 dollars on jnat.
There's human tendency to work on the 300 dollar thing more to get the most out of it.
This is false. You can sit there fiddling away on your $300 jnat for hours. If you didn't apex, you are probably just wasting your time. I wasted a lot of my time.
I appreciate it! Yeah, already bought a jewelers loupe. Yeah, it's just the post-atoma dressing and going for a matte or mirror finish that was conflicting for me... I feel like lapping is a rabbit hole in itself, I'm just trying to find the most simple, maximally effective setup that works for me.
Best results will be from a high grit lap then tomo. You can always see how coarse by experimenting.
Instead of w/d, could I do a 400 > 1200 atoma > nagura?