Just bought a brand new Norton 4k-8k. It seems very rough for these grit sizes. Especially compared to my old Keen-Kutter hone. Admittedly I dont know what grit size the Keen-Kutter is supposed to be, it's old and it just says "Razor hone" but it is very smooth and really just polishes the edge. The Norton feels and hones like 320 grit sandpaper on the 4k side and about like 600 grit on the 8k side. I have a few questions...

1. Do new Nortons require some sort of break in or wear in time??

2. I am pretty familiar with honing grit sizes on many other types of hones, could this Norton be marked wrong??? {yeah, it seems that bad!!}

3. Anyone out there in straight razor land know what grit the old Keen-Kutters were??? It's dark gray, almost a blue hue to it. It shines even when it's dry and dont feel like it would cut anything but it sure works great.

Thanks in advance for reading this. The Norton is so rough I am scared to take a straight razor to it.