Lapping a Chinese 12K

[leighton]

Hahaha, i was thinking that, but the Chinese is so much cheaper! I was thinking of maybe eventually adding a Shapton 16K to finish off with after the 12K

The improvement is so small, its not worth it. If it exists at all. It could be all in my head after all. Caused by the 4k difference in numbers on the hones.

Oops, thats comparing the Nani to the Shapton. I have no doubts that either is better than the 12k. Have no personal empirical evidence of this unless I've been sent a razor finished with a 12k, but no one's admitted that to me yet... So take my Chinese stone bashing with a grain of salt.

 

[adonnellyr]

The improvement is so small, its not worth it. If it exists at all. It could be all in my head after all. Caused by the 4k difference in numbers on the hones.

Oops, thats comparing the Nani to the Shapton. I have no doubts that either is better than the 12k. Have no personal empirical evidence of this unless I've been sent a razor finished with a 12k, but no one's admitted that to me yet... So take my Chinese stone bashing with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the advice! I think I just might eventually grab a 1K for those antique store fixer-uppers. (Much cheaper than a 16K anyway!)

 

[gugi]

Okay, so I may have went a little overboard and bought a Naniwa 3K and Naniwa 8K. Can I just do the same to lap them? And use roughly the same 200 to 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper?

Second question, can I just hone with all three of my stones by only dampening them as I hone, not actually soaking them prior to use?

Again, everyone's help has been much appreciated (and I'm sorry for any scuffles that have arisen from this thread )

yes you should be able to get by with sandpaper. they do benefit from refreshing the surface before every honing session, so dmt-c will make your life much easier. for maintenance this is of course a bit of an overkill, but you've already bought them.

the naniwa superstones are not porous like the norton and don't need soaking. a minute or two with water on the surface helps though.

 

[adonnellyr]

yes you should be able to get by with sandpaper. they do benefit from refreshing the surface before every honing session, so dmt-c will make your life much easier. for maintenance this is of course a bit of an overkill, but you've already bought them.

the naniwa superstones are not porous like the norton and don't need soaking. a minute or two with water on the surface helps though.

Are you saying the Naniwas require more upkeep than other hones and need to be lapped prior to every use?

 

[gugi]

not more than the norton.
certainly more than a diamond, coticule, escher, nakayama, or barbers hone
i haven't tried shaptons or spyderco so i cannot comment on them

 

[adonnellyr]

Bah. The DMT seems like such an expense I don't want to have to deal with.

I don't mind lapping my stones before use as I was thinking it would be good to do just to keep them clean..but I guess that means new sandpaper every time...

 

[gugi]

why not reuse the sandpaper?

 

[adonnellyr]

For some reason I assumed after lapping a stone it would be worn out...

 

[Tolduonce]

Before heading over to the glass coffee table, you may want to consider how I lapped my C12K and all my other hones for that matter. I used a 12"x12" piece of ceramic floor tile and 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Grab a radio and head into the laundry room. Put the tile into the laundry tub, wet the surface and press the paper onto the tile so it doesn't slide around. Turn the water on so it just trickles onto the paper. This helps to flush the slurry down the drain and keeps the paper from becoming loaded. Draw the grid on one wide and one narrow side and start lapping. When the grid is gone, round off the corners and you're done. Just for insurance, I usually repeat the process. Works like a charm and doesn't take a whole lot of time.
If doing more than one hone, it's best to do the finest grit hones first and move progressively up scale through the coarser grits. This will keep you from contaminating the finer hones with slurry from the coarser ones. Cleanup is a breeze using this method and the coffee table won't get scratched up.

Other points:
Soak the stones first.
I understand that floor tiles are held to a flatness tolerance of +/-.001" . Select the smoothest one you can find. Shouldn't cost more than $3 for a single tile. Just my two cents.

 

[Sticky]

For some reason I assumed after lapping a stone it would be worn out...

Depends on the hone. If it's a white Spyderco, the sandpaper wears out real quick...

 

[professorchaos]

A Chinese 12K? Perhaps a belt sander and some 80 grit sandpaper? Have fun.

 

[adonnellyr]

Update:

I'm such a consumer wh...well, you know.

I somehow have now put together the following hone progression: Naniwa 1K, 3K, 5K, 8K and Chinese 12K, plus .5 Micron strop paste (I'm thinking when I save up some cash down the road and am good enough at honing to benefit from the stone, I might get a 30K as my finishing stone).

I bought the 220 Grit Lapping Plate from Lynn and will see how that works. If it isn't sufficient I will go ahead and use the wet/dry. As a grad student, I can literally sit and lap a hone for 8 hours a day and not even feel like I had anything better I could have been doing, so I won't mind the difficult 12K too much hopefully

Thanks for all the help everyone. It's great hearing all the different views on various stones. Honing has opened up an entirely new area of straight shaving that seems complex in both a frightening and exciting way--can't wait to get started!

 

[gugi]

for essentially the same cost instead the 3k naniwa and the chinese hone the 12k naniwa would've been my preference, and i guess that's what i have.

either way the important part is to learn to use them well.

 

[adonnellyr]

for essentially the same cost instead the 3k naniwa and the chinese hone the 12k naniwa would've been my preference, and i guess that's what i have.

either way the important part is to learn to use them well.

That's the fun part

The Chinese 12K was only 35 dollars shipped, so it doesn't even seem like an expense really... If I want to change around the finishing stones I'll do that once I get some honing skills I think, but for now a stone that I need to lap a lot of times seems like a good learning tool.

 

[adonnellyr]

Alright, so here's the scoop. I get migraines about two to four times a year that last about five days each (this is coming back to shaving soon, I promise). The first day is horrible and I can barely move, but days two through five usually consist of me lying down and either watching television of browsing the internet in my convalescence. During this time I tend to go a little crazy, because I'm so insanely bored and frustrated.

This hone purchasing phase fell between days two and five.

I now have, ridiculously, the following hones on their way: the original Chinese 12K that started this thread, as well as a Naniwa 1K, 3K, 5K, 8K, and 12K. I intend on saving up to one day buy an expensive Japanese polishing stone to finish off my edge even further (I might sell the Naniwa 3K at that point if I find it unnecessary, r something along those lines).

I am a sick, sick person...

In any case, if I can't get a good edge out of this setup I might as well give up shaving altogether and grow a beard.

 

[gugi]

In any case, if I can't get a good edge out of this setup I might as well give up shaving altogether and grow a beard.

or just have somebody else hone your razors...

otoh migranes - sounds brilliant, i may use it some day too