Wowooo. Got my 4000/8000 Norton finally!

So,

I got my Hone. :D

Now, do you need to Lap it the first use or just soak it and then lap the stone after its use?

-W.

I would recommend doing a "Norton" search in the hones section. This should give you all the information that you need and more. Good luck.

I would lap it first to ensure it is perfectly flat. Save yourself the anguish of using a not so flat stone with a razor. Precision really counts here.

I bought the same hone. Then I went back to Woodcraft and bought the granite surface lapping stone (30 bucks) and while I was there I picked up one of those Chinese 12K hones too. Picked up some 400 and 800 grit wet/dry sand paper on my way home and lapped all my stones. Before I did, I scribbled pencil lines on the face of each hone before lapping just to see how far off they were. None were perfectly flat out of the box. The Norton was close but still slightly dished in the center.

If you have a flat surface, and it dosen't need to be a Granite surfacing stone like I bought, give your stones a good lapping. It's not hard to do, takes little time and effort and is trully worth it.

Most guys will say to lap it and do a flatness check on a wet countertop. The Norton search is probably a great idea to cover the bases..