Thread: Please

Hi there,
I need to ask you guys something. I recently bought a Norton Water Stone 220/1000, a 4000/8000, a Norton Flattening Stone and a Norton Prep Stone for Water Stone.
I want to know if I need to do anything with then before using. Is there any special preparation procedure?
How do I use this Prep Stone and in which stone should I use it?
Just one more thing, I still have no strop and I want to buy my first one. I would appreciate if you guys could recomend any. Considering I'm a brazilian it's kinda expensive so I want to buy a good one that I can use for a long time.

Thanks.
Alexandre Kerger

Hi Alexandre,

I don't know about the hones - you'll soon get advise from the experts, but as far as strops go, I believe Tony Miller @ www.thewellshavedgentleman.com is your man. Any strop you get from him you won't need (but you will want) another.

I second the Well shaved gentleman recommendation.

One of the best reasons to buy from Miller is that his attention to detail is infectious. You will want to have good form straight away so as not to damage the strop. This will enhance your learning curve by keeping you from re enforcing sloppy technique.

Oh yeah and monogram it! Sweet feature

I believe he meant http://www.thewellshavedgentleman.com/

There is debate as to whether you need to flatten the new stone or not. When I got mine I didn't and it was fine. Many will tell you you should. As long as the stone is flat its OK if you suspect it is not perfectly flat then you might want to lap it just to make sure. I'm not familiar with the Norton Flattening stone so I can't help you with then but in general you draw a grid with a pen on the stone and work the stone until the grid is gone, then you know its flat. As to the prep stone I assume you mean a slurry stone. I've never used one on the Norton so I can't help you there either.

Wow - quite a collection of Nortons you got there

Sure - it would not hurt at all to do the pencil grid - if the stone is flat the grid will be gone in just a few seconds and you won't have used up much of the hone.

Never used a prep stone either, so I can't help you. But you will do well by just soaking the stone and honing away (without it).

Tony Miller (the well shaved gent) makes fabulous strops - can't go wrong with him

Good luck
Ivo

Is the prep stone a white square about 3"s long and 1/2" x1/2" ? If so it's like a slurry stone, use it on the 4k and or 8k. It also works good to get rid of stone loading.

In the circles I tend to run in, Nortons are notoriously not flat. So use the flatened and a pencil grid to make sure the stones are flat from the start. Don't worry to much about the 220 being flat at first. But make sure it's flat after you use it. Most 220 stones are fast wearing stones and need to be flattened after use.

Now thats in my circles, kitchen knife circles, razors don't put as much wear and tear on stones like 12" AS steel knives and such, so take this all with a grain of salt