Flattening stone needs flattening?

What the heck? I'm in need of a tool to flatten my knife-sharpening stone and coticule. I've seen the Norton flattening stone, and assumed that's all I'd need. But the reviews on amazon say that they aren't truly flat, or go out of flat over time.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=09QW9YAD0KMPTR1GQZAY

What gives? What do I really need?

Hi Vlad! Those actually wear down over time as well. For me, I'd say get a course rated DMT (which never needs lapping) and use that to lap all your stones. It will also be able to double serve you in the event you have ships that need to come out of any of your blades. I have a DMT 220 and 325 that I usually reserve for this (the former used for the really dished ones). If you're on a budget they have a 6" continous one that has a double sided option (325/600). If you have a bit more funds, look for the 8x3 but that usually will only come in one grit rating.

Hope that helps!

Many options, the best option is SIC powder on a flat glass base, or an atoma 140, or dmt 8c, as well as wet dry sandpaper on glass. Those flattening stones need flattening (mine was off out of the box, I sold it).

buca3152 said:

Many options, the best option is SIC powder on a flat glass base, or an atoma 140, or dmt 8c, as well as wet dry sandpaper on glass. Those flattening stones need flattening (mine was off out of the box, I sold it).

Click to expand...

Can you spell those out? It's jargon with which I am not familiar.

SIC - silicon carbide powder. comes in different grits, needs to be used on a hard flat plate. Pretty inexpensive stuff.
Atoma 140x - very coarse very active diamond plate from Japan. Not so inexpensive.
DMT - go to option for diamond plates - they maye a lapping plate that is pricy but the 220x extra coarse is the usual choice.

Ok, so it sounds like the Norton flattening stone is definitely out. The cheapest fix is to get SIC powder and find something really flat to apply it to. I'll have to do some research.

Thanks, guys!

A granite tile should work. I use the back of a dead DMT Diasharp plate.