Well I just got my 4k/8k Norton in the mail today and just couldn't resist trying it out. Now my razor was still pretty much shave ready but I just had to. I did the unthinkable, and did a few bread slices on a coarse grit diamond stone I had lying around and dulled a perfectly good edge.
Now I've always considered myself as being somewhat of a knife sharpening expert, but this was my first attempt on a razor. So after lapping both sides of the stone, I proceeded in resetting the bevel on the 4k side. This took a bit longer than I expected, but I finally got the edge back according to the black marker test. I then flipped the stone over and went to town on the 8k side. After numerous passes, it just seemed like it wasn't getting any sharper, and the thumb pad test just wasn't feeling all that sharp. So now I'm starting to worry. Then I remembered reading a post about applying a little soap or lather on the stone for the final finishing steps, so I added a little soap and gave it a few more passes. The TPT was a little better, but still not what I was used to before I destroyed my blade.
So there I was, thinking why oh why did I slice the bread. Then I decided to pull out my balsa paddle I was in the process of making. Well it still wasn't finished yet, I wanted to stain it and make it look pretty and all. Applied some Chromium Oxide to one side and gave it about 15-20 passes. Followed that up with about 100 passes on the leather side of my hanging strop, and WOW!!!! This sucker is sharp. Passes the horizontal hair test with ease, before it would somewhat pass with an audible ping when the hair cut. Now it cuts them almost silently.
Of coarse the true test will be tomorrow morning when I shave with it, hopefully all goes well. Wish me luck. Anyways I just wanted to share my experience with y'all and figured this would be a good first post. Now if I only could only master shaving with this thing.