Norton 8k Variations...

Thought I'd see if anyone else has seen this. My Norton has basically gone to its eternal reward (4k side is pretty much used up) but saw lots of useful service for when I had it. The strange thing is, the 8k side seemingly didn't like to be soaked. If used as splash & go it worked fine (standard 8k Norton finish, working very well when doing strokes to dry ala JaNorton). But if soaked (which the 4k needed) it would darken quite a bit, turning almost brown. The feedback then was... "interesting". Felt very grabby & stuttery & actually dulled a few edges on it from not paying attention. Did not feel anything like a typical Norton 8k. I ended up lapping the 8k side a lot to fix it & each time, soon got down to regular yellow 8k, but after soaking for 15 min, it was back.

This was not a Mexican Norton, but 4k Italy; 8k US. Got it last year from a legit vendor. The 4k side worked fine. (It was a combo stone, so the whole thing had to be soaked.)

I have the single grit norton 4&8, The literature that came with them advises that it is not necessary to soak the 8k. The single grit stones are 1" thick, so if you replace your 4k maybe go for that and it will last awhile. You must have honed a whole heap of razors to wear a 4k side of the combo out.

Thought about doing that, but decided to go w/ the Shapton GS. Always wanted some & now have an excuse. I've been using it to set bevels w/ slurry since I liked it a lot more than the DMT 1200. Obviously can't do that on the 4k SHapton, so of course, had to pick up a Chosera 1k. :beer2:

That browning happens on the rough parts of my Norton 8K side of the 4K/8K combo. I never paid much attention to it until now. I keep my 4/8 combo stone under water year round, so I see that the rough sides of the 8K stone are brown, while the smooth honing surface is yellow. I still have a tiny rough spot at the corner of the 8K honing surface; I didn't lap the stone deep enough. That tiny spot is also brown.

The smooth honing surface polishes well, though.