Poll: How often do you lap your Norton...

Guys,

I've been experimenting with a Norton again after more than a year, and I've been liking it much better this time around. Part of it is that I'm doing all the heavy lifting on the DMT hones, so by the time I get to the Norton I'm just polishing the edge.

I have another theory about why it's working better, but I wanted to see what other people's experiences were before I explained what I'm noticing.

So, if you could answer these two questions, it might be an interesting discussion. :)

How often (in terms of razors) do you lap your Norton?

How satisfied are you with the edges you get from your Norton, one a scale of 1 (not satisfied) to 5 (very satisfied)?

Thanks for your input, everyone!

Josh

I lap mine every 2-3 razors maybe with my D8C. This way, it is a much quicker lapping. I.E.- I haven't done heavy work on the hones for so long that any real dishing or anything occurs. So it's just a light lap every couple razors. I am satisfied (4.5/5) with the edges I get. I think they do their job as well as they can. I think to give a 5 it would have to do the work for me lol.

I'm lapping my stones at least every 6 or 7 razors. I use the Norton flatting stone. It boils down to dressing it every time I hone. It takes about 5 minutes for a 1K, 4K and a 8K. I do like the results I get. I do polish on a 12k Chinese and progress to bench strops at 3µ pasted to a .5µ diamond and then on horsehide.

It's not so much that I lap it as give it a few wipes with my dmt1200 when it gets glazed from honing.

This degunking keeps the norton cutting nicely and has the side effect of keeping it pretty level pretty much all of the time.

I lap mine everytime I get them out. I usually do a couple at a time though. The Nortons are the only ones I've used besides a Chinese 12K, but they seem easy to work with. Still being new to all this, all the razors I've honed and been satisfied as being shave ready, have all produced fine shaves.

I lap mine before a session after soaking it.
Usually, I only do 2-4 blades in a session.
This takes very little time and ensures that I have a nice flat surface. When I was first starting out before discovering lapping, it seemed like I was getting very inconsistent results. My lapping process seems to have made it much easier to hone consistently.

well i have to be contrary... i lap every 30-40 razors... which ia about the time i find honing is more work than normal. my nortons re alway in water and i do a lot of ebite specials.

the last weekend when i lapped them they had a really odd wear pattern... they were "high in the middle and you could plainey see where my x-strokes started and ended ... took all of 20 minutes to make the 220/1k and 4k/8k combos flat.


YMMV

Every couple hundred passes I refresh the surface with the DMT-C because it starts to glaze over with metal particles and not cut as well. The number of razors depends on how much work each would need; it could be lapped a couple of times per razor, or I could make it a couple of razors before refreshing/lapping.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by heavydutysg135

Every couple hundred passes I refresh the surface with the DMT-C because it starts to glaze over with metal particles and not cut as well. The number of razors depends on how much work each would need; it could be lapped a couple of times per razor, or I could make it a couple of razors before refreshing/lapping.

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have you tried using a nylon scotchbrite pad between razors? i find that this removes the glazing and keeps the cutting surface in good shape

Quote:

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Originally Posted by syslight

have you tried using a nylon scotchbrite pad between razors? i find that this removes the glazing and keeps the cutting surface in good shape

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I use a small translucent Arkansas stone like a Nagura stone. It makes a slurry, takes the glaze off and help keeps the hones flatter longer during the session.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by syslight

have you tried using a nylon scotchbrite pad between razors? i find that this removes the glazing and keeps the cutting surface in good shape

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No, I have not tried a scotchbrite, but the DMT-C does a great job of refreshing the surface and keeping the surface flat at the same time for me. I have not really felt the need to look for alternatives but that sounds like a good option.

David

Welcome back to the dark side, josh :D

I lap my nortons after each use, so that they are flat when I use them next time.
Lapping after each use has the advantage that it doesn't cost much time. 10 - 20 seconds on each side and they are good as gold.

I like my nortons a lot. I think they are indispensible, at least for creating / polishing the bevels.
The 8K can deliver a shaving edge, but these days I consider it an intermediate step before the coticule or Japanese stones.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kenrup

I use a small translucent Arkansas stone like a Nagura stone. It makes a slurry, takes the glaze off and help keeps the hones flatter longer during the session.

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I do this as well, only wth a small, coarse barber hone. I lap every 25 razors or so.

I try and remember to do it every 10 razors but.......
whenever they need it...
The Norton Nagura does a great job of cleaning off the surface of the stone
I also use a finishing stone (Shapton 16k) after the Nortons but for the cost and the ease of use they are hard to beat out to the 8k grit..... I would rate them a 4 out of 5 now after using the Shapton 4k and 8k at the NC meet....
However the Norton 1k is still a bevel setting monster.....

Never. I just take the Norton Waterstone kit to the NC meetup and let gssixgun lap them for me....

Oh wait! Does this mean I'll need to start lapping them myself in the future?

NEVER!




















Cos' I don't have one! (sorry I could not stop myself)

Well, this isn't enough responses to be scientific, or even representative... But the majority seem to lap their Norton frequently, if not on every razor.

My hypothesis, which I submit for discussion, is that frequent lapping is the key to happiness when you're using a Norton. Because the 4K side of the stone is pretty soft, I think that it quickly gets rough on the edges, and this isn't good for edges as fine as what we're trying to create. It also dishes out, and we already know that makes life difficult...

I've always noticed that my Norton does best when I get that smooth, slightly chaulky feeling while honing on the 4K side. For some reason, the outer edge of the hone quickly looses its smoothness and starts to feel rough. I have always felt this was damaging the edge; the sensation is one of grinding rather than sliding.

I used to assume this roughness was normal, but now I'm lapping whenever I feel it, and I'm much more satisfied with the results.

Maybe this is a source of newbie angst. They are reluctant to lap their new, expensive hones, and so with each step in the pyramid they're slightly degrading the edge...

Just a thought. Anyone care to agree or disagree? :)

Josh

Thanks for this post, as I've been wondering if I lap mine too much, but looks like I'll keep doing what I've been doing.

I would say I lap mine every after 5-6 razors. Depending the residue.

I will lap it sooner if I notice there is a lot of black residue that is getting embedded. After I lap the stone it works much better and faster.

This is kinda annoying now and I am hoping to get a Belgian in the near future.

Bah, I never use my norton anymore. It's DMT plates followed with Spyderco (M,F, UF) FTW...or coticule...

When I used to use it, I would lap before every honing session. I don't like the edge from the 8K though, it just didn't work for me. It's currently collecting dust in my hone drawer, I may sell it here cheap just to get rid of it.

Josh, I agree with your theory. I think that the Norton obviously gets clogged pretty easily and is also a soft hone which can become un-flat pretty quickly. Because of those things I think that at least refreshing the surface often will yield better honing results. Everyone seems to agree that it feels better when freshly lapped. I was also thinking about it this way: If you hone one razor, then the hone has wear from that one razor being honed. Therefore when you go to another razor without lapping, the hone won't be as flat or smooth as it was for the first. So this could progress until by the time you are at 20 razors it will be so clogged and unevenly surfaced that it could be hard to hone anything (exaggerating). I know this is like micro changes to the surface and old barbers had significantly dished hones and did alright, but if I can find a way to give me consistent edges I'm gonna go with it. Did I get too confusing here?