” Poor Man’s ” Atoma ?

[DARRELL ALLEN]

:unsure:

Question for y’all…………….if one needs to lap their set of Super Fine Ceramic stones, but cannot afford the Atoma plates just yet, what would y’all suggest trying to lap it with ?

I had thought of maybe trying some quality self adhesive sandpaper mounting it to a 12 x 12 granite tile from Home Depot, but have NO CLUE about what grit to use for the lapping ?

Any suggestions ?

[Mikedoh]

I know “grits aren’t grits”, but in looking at the grits comparison chart, wouldn’t you want something comparable to ~ a 5k Chosera to flatten the 1600 ceramic? Isn’t the texture you put on a ceramic basically its grit size?

[Leo Barr]

ChefsKnivesToGo sell an inexpensive 140 plate http://www.chefknivestogo.com/140grdistflp.html 22€ sorry my browser converts from dollars to euros.

[Mikedoh]

Leo,
Doesn’t a ceramic take on the “coarseness” characteristics of what it has been lapped with? I.e. If lapped with an Atoma 140, you end up with ~ a ceramic version of the 140?

[Leo Barr]

Now that is something that I am not sure about although there was a topic on lapping & ceramics some time ago.
The 140 is good for the lower grit Choseras you can get cheap fine diamond plates for the finer grits even some of the smaller DMT plates are not that pricey .
I think Ken suggests 3 different grit plates for lapping . ~I have a Shapton glass lapping plate but that is expensive although it will do most grits but I use the 140 plate I suggested for lower grits .
You can also use silicon carbide powder and use that with water on glass it gradually breaks down so lapp the courser grits first then move onto the finer grits as the powder becomes finer . You can let it dry on the glass and re hydrate it when you need it .
You may find this is the least expensive option if you can find somewhere local that sells it in alb or half lb bags.
As for the ceramics refer to the posts on them here.
I did not read the first question properly but fine silicon carbide on glass should be the way to go .

[Eating Pie]

I settled on the DMT W8EFNB 8-Inch DuoSharp Bench Stone Extra-Fine / Fine No Base from Amazon for about $70.00. They also sell a 10” for about $96.00.

DMT guarantees that their DuoSharps are really flat (like 0.005 micron or something), and you get 2 grits and a silicon non-slip map. I’ve lapped my 5K/10K Choseras, and my Micro-Fine ceramics. I did one Micro-Fine entirely on the DMT, and the other I ran through the WE 100/200/400 progression first. Took longer without the progression, but that stone was really warped.

I don’t know if this constitutes “poor man’s” Atoma, but it’s over $100 savings. Your other choice is to simply use the WE stones up to the 1000 grit. I found that such a hassle I gladly shelled out the $70 for the DMT DuoSharps.

-Pie

[Cliff Stamp]

Note you can actually just buy the diamond part of the Atoma plate and stick it on glass or anything else. If you shop around you can find lots of diamond based papers for a lot less as well, including metal based foils with diamond.

[Mark76]

Note you can actually just buy the diamond part of the Atoma plate and stick it on glass or anything else. If you shop around you can find lots of diamond based papers for a lot less as well, including metal based foils with diamond.

Can you really buy “the diamond part of the Atoma plate”? [Edit. Due to some extreme coincidence I just stumbled upon this: http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/product-p/ato140repl.htm . Is this what you mean?]

I do know the foil with diamond from Atoma and I considered making my own plates from that. (And I’m not sure anymore, but I think one or a few people here actually did that.) But what I read is that the foil lost its diamonds pretty quickly; not the same quality as the diamond plates.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Josh]

Note you can actually just buy the diamond part of the Atoma plate and stick it on glass or anything else. If you shop around you can find lots of diamond based papers for a lot less as well, including metal based foils with diamond.

Can you really buy “the diamond part of the Atoma plate”? [Edit. Due to some extreme coincidence I just stumbled upon this: http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/product-p/ato140repl.htm . Is this what you mean?]

I do know the foil with diamond from Atoma and I considered making my own plates from that. (And I’m not sure anymore, but I think one or a few people here actually did that.) But what I read is that the foil lost its diamonds pretty quickly; not the same quality as the diamond plates.[/quote]

Mark, I loved my 140 atomas… they worked GREAT. Only issue was as you mentioned, they lost the aggressiveness after about 30-40 knives and were practically useless. Now, I got mine from Ken Schwartz… not sure if he used the foil or the plates? what’s the difference? It seemed to be the foil that was attached to the aluminum backing plate.

[Cliff Stamp]

Yes, that is it. The plates wear out as will any surface abrasive and it isn’t like you need a new base so you can just buy the actual abrasive plate. They are just glued on.

[Mark76]

Mark, I loved my 140 atomas… they worked GREAT. Only issue was as you mentioned, they lost the aggressiveness after about 30-40 knives and were practically useless. Now, I got mine from Ken Schwartz… not sure if he used the foil or the plates? what’s the difference? It seemed to be the foil that was attached to the aluminum backing plate.

Some time ago there was a topic about this (you probably participated). A few of us (I think from Europe) had the idea of together buying some of the diamond-covered foil, since it was only sold in large sheets. I think I’d found a German dealer who sold this stuff. I then found out via other sources (sorry, my memory is not working too well today) that this stuff wasn’t very durable.

I don’t know the exact difference between the foil and the pad, but I think the foil is thinner, rollable and could be cut with some good shears. If the pad is the same material as the cover of a normal Atoma plate (and I think it is), it should be very good.

Maybe you should send Ken a mail (or have a Skype call 😉 ).

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Daniel maloon]

I used diamond plates from H.F. to flatten those ceramics. Cheap and it works. I wouldn’t lap them on the W.E stones.

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