Flattening plates vs glass 'n' grit

[Shmackey]

Are there any advantages of stones/plates meant for flattening stones when compared with using a sheet of glass and silicon grit? I mean besides the mess factor.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

In my experience glass and grit is fastest and gives the most satisfactory results overall. The only downside is the dished-out glass that you eventually end up with and have to replace, but that and the grit are both cheap and easy to source. I used plates for a long time, and still use them for some things, but any time I've needed to really flatten a stone rather than just freshen the surface a little, I bust out the plate glass.

 

[Diemaker]

The two methods asked about are wildly different in practice. Loose abrasive on a flat plate is worlds better at lapping something flat vs abrasive in a binder. I use it for many things as well as dressing stones and resin bond stones. The trick to keeping the plate flat is to try lapping it flat with whatever you are trying to lap.

 

[annr]

What are the specs you would recommend for the glass used to flatten?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I do my lapping in a plastic dish tote so I can catch any stray grit. Just select a piece of glass that'll fit whatever catch container you're using and that it's thick enough not to flex under pressure. You can typically find glass "cutting boards" very economically that do the job nicely.

 

[Bill3152]

12 in square granite floor tile is what I use when I'm using sic. I paid about $5 at home Depot some time ago.

 

[wade7575]

Instead of the lapping or flattening stones whatever you want to call them for water stones,get a 140 or 400 grit Atoma diamond plate off ebay it will last you for years and if you are going to flatten really high grit stones that are 6 to 10K get a 1200 grit or finer diamond plate.

Your stones will wear back to their factory in no time,I have lapped Shapton Glass stones yet mine haven't needed it,but they are so hard I don't know if I would want to lap a 10K Shapton Glass with a 1200 diamond plate out of fear it would take forever for the Shapton stone to go back to it's factory grit.

I emailed you some link's Shmackey