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Breaking in the Chinese 12K

The Lapping

Let me just start by saying the Norton flattening stone works fast. Of course, it's possible I could have just lucked into a very nearly flat 12K, but still...

I drew a pencil grid on both sides, wet down both stones, and did about 30 seconds on each side to see which was closest to flat. They were about the same, so I arbitrarily picked one and went to town.

I stopped periodically to rinse off the 12K and the Norton. when I finally got that side flat (all the pencil marks gone and the entire side in contact with the Norton) I flipped the 12K and went to town on the other side.

Time from drawing the pencil grids to having both sides flat? 30 minutes. I was a bit surprised, considering the 12K's pretty tough reputation.

The Honing

So, since the razor I was testing on was still in pretty good shape, I only did 4 laps on the DMT 8K. No worries there.

Moving on to the 12K. I wound up doing about 25 laps there. I don't have a magnifier to check the edge, but I was watching the water wave in front of the blade. By about the 22nd pass I was starting to see another very small wave appear in front of the main mass of the water being pushed by the blade, so I assumed at that point the edge was about there and stopped.

The Test

To preface - the hanging hair test doesn't work very well for me. My hair is pretty coarse, and even a wicked-sharp razor from a honemeister, or straight off a .25 micron paddle, won't pop one of my hairs. The razor DID slice off the hairs on my arms, though. I guess I'll find out how well I did in the morning.
 
Hmm, I have a Chinese 12K in the mail. I hope mine is as close to flat as you say yours was.
Best, Ken.
 
The Shave

Wow. Really smooth. It wasn't the closest shave I've ever had (I was in a bit of a hurry) but the razor just seemed to glide across my face. Much nicer than the finish from a 0.25 micron pasted strop.
 
I used the Norton flattening stone on mine and had similar results, unfortunately the one side of my chinese 12k has a chip on it so to use that side would require some serious work, but hopefully I'll never need it.
 
I also used a Norton flattening stone on my Chinese 12k. My 12K was irregular on both sides and it also took me about 30 minutes to flatten it. I have a antique barber hone that is closer to glass then stone I figure it must be around 15K. No that puts a polish on a bevel!
 
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