Lapping bench stones with Edge Pro glass leveling kit?

S

Strauss95

Joined
Dec 17, 2012
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Quick question. I finally ordered myself some bench stones to try to master freehand sharpening. I have the Shapton Pro 320, 1K, and 5K on the way. But since I currently own the Edge Pro, I have the glass leveling kit which uses the glass circle along with silicon carbide powder to level stones. Obviously I have used this many times to level my Chosera stones that I use with the Edge Pro, but was wondering if that set-up would work with the Shapton Pro bench stones? Figured I'd ask before I go and purchase a diamond lapping plate if it's not necessary.

If that won't work, any suggestions on which lapping plate I should get for those particular stones? I was looking at the Atoma 140 or 400 as I've seen they are popular. FWIW I do have the Atoma 140 cut for my Edge Pro, don't know if that would maybe work for lapping the full size bench stones either.

Thanks for the help, excited to get started on freehand!
 
Figured I'd ask before I go and purchase a diamond lapping plate if it's not necessary.
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I highly recommend the DMT W250CXNB 10-Inch DuoSharp Bench Stone Coarse / Extra-Coarse
they can be found for around $100 to $140. That is way cheeper than the Shapton "lapping" plate which if I remember is on the order of $300 plus. Then you need to feed it abrasive powder.

I have never really understood or seen the point of rubbing a stone around on ball bearing like grit and expecting it to get flattened quickly AND not to wear out the glass or flattening plate in a non even manner.

AGAIN I have no experience with that process maybe it is the cats meow. All I am saying is I get stellar results for much less money and very quickly with the grit locked into the surface of the DMT plate. I have flattened tons of water stones and some ceramic, Shapton and Hard Arkansas stones and the DMT is still very flat and has not been dulled too much to still very quickly flatten stones. I have totally abused the DMT attempting to flatten A-2 plane blades (pressing very hard with the stone on the floor a HUGE no no) and that was before I ever measured the plate for flatness. I pressed very hard after hours of attempting to flatten the blades in a light let the stone do the work mind set. Nada.

IT DID NOT MESS UP THE FLATNESS. It did take off some of the sharpness of the grit but like I said it still flattens ALL the stones FAST !

The pink stone with the deep "zig zag" looking line in it was "designed" to flatten stones. When I got it it was not flat by a significant amount as compared to the Diamond plate and checked on the Starrett surface plate. I don't have the specs in mind or any place I can look them up but the stone rocked corner to corner and was some what hollow. The diamond plate did not rock at all, at all, was not hollow to a spec on the order of a thou inch across the whole length.

I used the diamond plate to FLATTEN the pink/zig zag stone flattening stone and to maintain it.

These photos are many years old. At the time our main interest / point of discussion was the depth of the holes in the plate. Some said that the fiber reinforced yellow plastic was flush with the diamond and prevented adequate abrasive action and my point was that MY PLATE at any rate was not that way and that the plastic was indeed well bellow the level of the diamonds. I measured it and posted the results. While I was at it I studied the over all flatness. Some said the plates were woefully out of flat. I measured MY PLATE at any rate and found it to be VERY FLAT and way beyond what I needed to keep my stones flat and flatten the backs of woodworking plane blades (though the 220 grit diamond proved very slow at flattening those blades and I moved on to much coarser (60 to 80 grit) zerconia alumina "sand paper" (cloth belts actually) glued to a flat surface).









 
and another thing . . .

how ever you flatten your stones be sure to once in a while bevel the edges around the whole stone, front, back ends etc.

This will prevent the edges from chipping off and getting all crappy. I forget what the technical term is for this but it sure as heck happens if you don't take off the sharp edges of the stone by rubbing on the diamond plate or what have you.
 
The Shapton lapping accessories are geared, as far as I know, toward the glass stones. Although I would imagine can be used on other stones. Really pricey considering one could purchase all four full size Atoma plates for the same money as the two Shapton offerings. I'm not sure what the previous post means other than there are other inferior offerings compared to the Atoma. No offense meant.
 
Not a big deal if I need to pick up an Atoma, just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting my money if I could have used what I already had. Thanks for the insight so far!
 
+1 for the Atoma 140. I use one daily and for lapping and setting bevels, it's a very useful tool to have.
 
what the previous post means
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I must have misunderstood. Terminology wise.

When I hear "lapping plate" I think of the glass the OP mentioned with grit sprinkled over it and the following with the deep grooves (very pricey and pointless).





Now I understand, I think, that the "lapping plate" was what I would call a diamond sharpening stone and looks like this and costs much less. Is that true ? Then by all means.
All I was saying was avoid the lapping plates using grit and the glass using grit and just use a coarse diamond plate of known flatness.

 
The Atoma are premium diamond plates and thanks to a unique diamond structuring they not only cut steel quickly but are very good at lapping waterstones because they stick to the surface less.

I also have the Shapton Diamond on Glass lapping plate (second lapping plate you have shown), it's a very good tool on the Glass stones but I think when the time comes to replace it I might just switch to the Atoma 400. Personally, I'm not seeing a big advantage to the Shapton DGLP except it does dress and texture the finer stones very well.
 
Strauss95 said:
Quick question. I finally ordered myself some bench stones to try to master freehand sharpening. I have the Shapton Pro 320, 1K, and 5K on the way. But since I currently own the Edge Pro, I have the glass leveling kit which uses the glass circle along with silicon carbide powder to level stones. Obviously I have used this many times to level my Chosera stones that I use with the Edge Pro, but was wondering if that set-up would work with the Shapton Pro bench stones? Figured I'd ask before I go and purchase a diamond lapping plate if it's not necessary.

If that won't work, any suggestions on which lapping plate I should get for those particular stones? I was looking at the Atoma 140 or 400 as I've seen they are popular. FWIW I do have the Atoma 140 cut for my Edge Pro, don't know if that would maybe work for lapping the full size bench stones either.

Thanks for the help, excited to get started on freehand!
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For what its worth, I picked up some diamond grit lapping disks, 8" for a disk sharpening unit I built a ways back. They came from Kingsly North, a lapidary supply house. I picked up the 180, 320, 1200 and 3k. The lower grit ones are not very good for sharpening as the plating is extremely thick compared to a sharpening diamond plate - the 320 is passable but everything below that is not.

The 180 does lap other stones flat very quickly though, faster than my XXC DMT by a notable margin. I have used it on my Crystalon stone, Spyderco F/UF and on all of my waterstones, does a great job. I was impressed at how fast it was able to flatten the Spyderco fine, everything else was no contest. It also appears to have extremely little wear after much use, and I can keep my other plates for sharpening. It wasn't cheap, around $60, but I don't expect to ever need another. The disk shape is nice for lapping stones - more surface area.
 
Ive been using a glass plate and silicon carbide grit to flatten my waterstones for years and it works perfectly fine. Shapton actually sells silicon carbide grit specifically for this purpose.
 
A professional knife sharpener at a Blade Festival in Seki City, Japan
These guys don't worry quite so much about how flat their stones are.
zhRkKz.jpg
 
I went ahead and ordered the Atoma 140 plate. Should be here later this week. Thanks for the help everyone.
 
Now I may be speaking outta turn here but I use the bottom of a porcelain floor tile and some water to flatten my Edge Pro stones, am I making a mistake w/ this method?
 
Ote said:
Now I may be speaking outta turn here but I use the bottom of a porcelain floor tile and some water to flatten my Edge Pro stones, am I making a mistake w/ this method?
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How coarse is the tile? lol. As long as it's flat, I guess it will do the job. Obviously there are much better options out there. Personally I used the Edge Pro glass leveling kit to flatten all of my Edge Pro stones, worked great on my Chosera stones cut for the EP also.
 
A nice flat cement paving stone will get your stones flat and only costs 50 cents. Stones don't have to be Johansson Block flat to do a good job. Only a poor mechanic blames his tools.


Stitchawl
 
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