Flattened all my Naniwa professional stones tonight use it Diaflat 95 lapping plate for the first time. I did it in the sink under running water like I have seen in videos. Scratches were left in my stones. I found letting the plate “load” up with the waste from the stone towards the end of flattening helped to smooth out the surface somewhat. Should I be concerned about performance of the stone moving forward? Is there something I’m doing wrong? Or am I just worrying about nothing at all? I appreciate any and all advise and comments.
It's nothing to worry about but I would recommend using a Nagura on 1k and up stones... probably the 800 too, its still a fairly fine stone in that line. The use of a Nagura is ONLY for surface texture, it will improve tactile feel. P.S. Wash away the slurry and always make sure the stone is well flushed with water. Never use a slurry you make with the Nagura.
If I am flattening stones of higher grit and don’t want the plate grind marks I will lap it with a similar grit stone. Normally I just leave the little grooves though as they will smooth out after some passes of the knife.
I've used an Atoma 140 to lap/flatten my stones since I started freehand sharpening. With the higher grits I would use a Naniwa cleaning/dressing stone (you can find these at Knife Merchant for about $8) to get rid of the scratches. MTC Kitchen had a 20% off sale a while back and I picked up a Nano Hone NL-5 lapping plate and have been absolutely blown away by it. It works much faster than the Atoma 140 and leaves the stone feeling like it has been dressed. There is no suction feeling, and cleanup is super easy as well. At $212 retail the NL-5 is not cheap, but with the 20% off MTC sale price of $169.60 (with free shipping) it was some of the best money I've spent recently!
If you are willing to wait to buy that Nano Hone stone from MTC Kitchen, they seem to have sales quite frequently - at least 4 times from July to December last year.
I mostly use an Atoma 140.... Had and did not like the Shapton DGLP and have had a small chance to play with the Nano hone products. The Nano hone stones could be better IMO but the lapping plates are probably the best lapping plates available. The NL-5 leaves a texture unlike any other lapping plate and seems to be ideal on very hard ceramic waterstones like the Shapton and Nano hone.
Im wishing I had done more research before buying the DMT now. The Nano plates look incredible and are getting awesome feed back from people online. In time I think I probably get the Nano. Until then I might try lapping the DMT 95 with a cheap corse stone to “break it in” and remove the larger and proud diamonds on it. I read an article on Science Of Sharp that had shown that DMT products have contamination of larger diamonds on their plates. Maybe this will help with the larger scratches form using it.
Personally, the 8" lapidary disks in 180 mesh are about perfect, esp for $50 or so. Virtually indestructible for waterstone flattening.
