My Norton 4k side is grainy as well. Frankly I don't care for it. It gets the job done but it is very grainy. When I first got it, Gssixgun suggested that a LOT had to be lapped off of it to remove the gritty texture. I gave it hell with my DMT and took a good 1/8" off of it. Yeah, it's as smooth as it's gonna get until I hit the 8k side. It performs fine but it throws slurry readily and feels grittier than my SS 1k. When the time comes, I'll replace it with a different stone but I think you'll find that it's doing it's job just the same in spite of how it feels.