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lapping a nani 12k in a cabin

Before I buy a DMT D8C, your input sought.

I am going to leave a few razors in the cabin.

At home I maintain them with diamond pasted balsa. But I want a simpler system at the cabin. i don't want to buy the gear, fresh balsa, fresh sandpaper, the spray glue, the naptha to remove the glue etc. The cabin's out in nowhere and a six hour flight from home.

I'm thinking just bring my new nani 12k and buy it a diamond lapping plate. Strop on leather every day and then lap and hone on my nani every few weeks to freshen the razor. Don't need to buy anything and it should last decades.

It would also be a nice experiment to compare to my home balsa system.

But is a DMT D8C the right lapping plate to maintain my nani in this situation? It seems so. That simple cabin set up should last decades.

Thoughts?
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Buy a second, thin Nani 12k for the cabin. Take it to the cabin lapped, on both sides. Maintaining shave ready razors for cabin use, and you should not need to lap it more than once a year or two even if you spent 6/mo a year there. When you do need to lap, take the second, lapped Nani to the cabin and return with the ‘used’ one.

Nothing else needed
 
You could buy a granite tile at your local home improvement center and some 220 to 400 grit sandpaper and use that to lap the 12k. Simple and cost effective
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Lapping on sandpaper is IMHO much superior to any other method.

A few sheets of 1u lapping film would last an awfully long time. Then you would have no stone to lap. 1u film is about the same or maybe very slightly finer than a 12k Naniwa.

A .1u diamond balsa strop would still be my choice. Good for at least a month before refreshing the diamond and you should be able to go a few months without lapping it. Maybe just bring in a fresh one every visit or two.
 
That's interesting Acmemfg. I'm trying to set up a "set it and forget it" system at the cabin.

Slash is right that sandpaper, lapping film, balsa, all those things have advantages. I use them all at home. But all those things need maintenance. I don't even want to pack things back and forth.

When you say the zulu grey seldom needs lapping, how often do you mean? If I still need a lapping plate anyway, then I'll just bring over my nani 12. The zulu seems great, but I already own a nani.

Is there a finishing stone that never never needs lapping? I'm unaware of that, but maybe it exists... It would have to handle a finishing touch up every few weeks, about forty light laps, and for four months a year, and for say thirty years until I'm dead and not shaving very much any more.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
You are looking for a way to lap the Naniwa, but the Naniwa which you acknowledge needs regular lapping requires less maintenance than film or balsa? That does not compute, Will Robinson.

Still, I get it. Best way to lap the Nanny is with sandpaper stuck to a 12x12 polished marble floor tile. It will always be flat and it is big enough to minimize overrun.
 
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@kohalajohn I lapped the Zulu when I first got it. That would have been around 2013.
The lapping process was rather perfunctory as the stone was extremely flat right out of the box. Never needed to repeat the procedure.
 
Holy crap batman, five years and counting on your stone. my nani is more high maintenance than that. Having a nani is like dating a model. They're lovely but they're work.

Anyway, it's all cool. Most of this motivation is me wanting to try a new system. I started out with diamond pasted balsa in the first place and I want to try something else. Time to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations!

I just ordered my atoma 400 today. So every month I'll give the nani several swirls on the atoma, then give the razor about twenty light hones on the flat nani and see how that goes in the cabin.

thanks for your input, gents. Aloha
 
Ok, I am here in the cabin now. Here for two months.

I'm going to experiment, going both ways.

For one razor I brought a nani 12 and an atoma 400 lapping plate to keep the nani flat.

For the second razor I brought a .1u diamond pasted balsa, freshly lapped and pasted.

The razors are not the same, so there's that. But they both came here shave ready.

I know that the razor on the pasted balsa, stropped 40x daily, will stay good. That's my home system.

But I'm going to find out if just a nani 12k honing, every few weeks, will keep the second razor in shape.

Further advice to follow.
 
If your going to alternate daily that's only ~30 shaves on each razor. IME just stropping would easily keep up. YMMV.

Do enjoy your cabin time regardless.
 
I'm shaving with one razor in the morning and the other in the evening. I'm here for sixty days.

But yeah, these experiments do need time.
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Is there a finishing stone that never never needs lapping?

A hard black Arkansas from Dan's (or Sharpening Supplies because they sell rebranded Dan's). It will be dead flat when you buy it. You might want to smooth it before its first use, but it won't need to be lapped.

Never is a long time, but we aren't going to live that long.

Happy shaves,

Jim

P.S. I realize you already decided on something, so this is just FYI.
 
Thanks Jim.

My motivation here is that my cabin is on the big island of hawaii and that is the end of the supply chain. Back home in Canada I can get as much 400 grit sandpaper as I want. But we have supply shortages here.
 
A hard black Arkansas from Dan's (or Sharpening Supplies because they sell rebranded Dan's). It will be dead flat when you buy it. You might want to smooth it before its first use, but it won't need to be lapped.

Never is a long time, but we aren't going to live that long.

Happy shaves,

Jim

P.S. I realize you already decided on something, so this is just FYI.



Jim, is this the stone you mean?

Hard Black Arkansas Stone in Wooden Box
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Instead of lapping the balsa, you could maybe get away with scraping with a furniture scraper. You can make one easily enough, out of an old saw blade. Cut out a 2" x 3" rectangle, being careful not to overheat the steel. Clamp it in a vise with one long edge on top. On that long edge, lay a file flat on the length of the piece. File the edge dead flat and smooth, taking full advantage of the file's presumed straightness and flatness. Now here is where the magic happens. Lightly file crossways along the entire length of the scraper's edge. This makes a very nice burr. To use, simply apply the scraper to the balsa at a 45 degree angle and draw it toward you. Longitudinally it will not perfectly lap the balsa true, but side to side it will be as flat as you made the scraper. You can also buy ready made scrapers but more cool factor if you make it yourself. Anyway such a scraper leaves a beautiful finish on hardwood cabinet pieces, glossy compared to sanded wood. Worth a try on balsa, maybe. Once in a while you will have to refresh the burr on the scraper but a file should do that probably 100 times before the file needs sharpening. (Yes, that is a thing.)
 
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