O.K. So I think I'm picking up what you are putting down, however I am a visual learner. Is there a video on lapping the ceramics? Should I lap similar to how one would flatten a Chosera water stone, I certainly do not want to ruin my new micro fines and I have a set of fine stones coming so a little education here would be helpful.

I know this is a somewhat older post but I was wondering if the lapping was just for initial usage and getting the aggressiveness of the ceramics right or if they will need to be flattened like natural stones do?

It's mostly the initial usage and to get the aggressiveness right.

What Curtis said... the ceramic stones are VERY hard. I was suprised and how much I had to work them on a coarse diamond plate to see any difference at all. They should do many , many knives before you would have any dishing.
If you meaure them with a traight edge, and they need flattening, be prepared for some hard work.

BTW, I tried the crosshatching trick to indicate when the stone is flat with a permananet marker. Apparently it penetrates the ceramic.. I never have been able to get it out of the one stone. If you are going to do this, use a pencil...

Phil

Thanks guys!
I was actually wondering if it was just my imagination since my course ultra-fine seemed to be courser than the 1600 stones. I'll try lapping them on my DMT extra fine unless you guys think something courser is necessary.

"My coarse Micro-Fine stones were more coarse than I wanted at the moment, so I took them all the way up to the 1000# diamonds, progressing from the 100# stones up the line. I also have a 3um diamond bench stone that I used to finish and the coarse Micro-Fines were like a whole different set of stones. "
Is what Clay said that he did... in the first post in this thread...

I used the DMT coarse, then DMT fine plates. It seems to me that this put the stone in the corrct sequence with the Other ceramics. It looks that way in the photos I took as well.

I think that if you just use the DMT extra fine plate, you will have to work the stones for quite awhile to make a significant change. You can always try and see how they work on steel.

Phil

PhilipPasteur wrote:
I have all of those (course and fine are a double sided) so I will start with the course and run the gamut checking them after the fine and if needed go on to the extra fine.

Dunno what a gamut check is, but sounds interesting...

Gamut: an entire range or series <ran the gamut from praise to contempt>

It's not a gamut check. He means he will go through all of the stones, then check the results.

Thank you, sir! That is precisely what I meant.