As I was saying a few threads ago, I got two Nortons. They ended up arriving yesterday.

First thought as soon as I opened the box: The surface is too rough. "Now I understand why the straight razor forum guys advice on lapping them even before the first use" I thought. Lapped them and realized that the surface was not very even. The 1000 grit and the two 4000 grit surfaces gave up quite easily, but the 8000 grit one still has two corners that are rough (haven't been touched by the lapping surface), even after 20 minutes lapping, rinsing, lapping... and so on.

Don't know if I am lapping the wrong way (I am using just the two stones I've got, alternating surfaces, and a 5B pencil to mark the unused surface). I might try sandpaper on a glass or wood, or something even more aggressive on it later.

They are prone to breaking. I accidentally crashed the 8000 one to the edge of the blue plastic box cover (I used the stones inside the box they come in). Though this plastic is soft and flexible, a tiny bit of the 8000 edge immediately broke.

On the nice side: They are very wide. I am used to stones that are just slightly over half of the Nortons. I guess that I don't have any "pool" to soak them. Presentation (the blue plastic box I mentioned above) is nice and useful as well (as of now I keep my stones in newspaper sheets). They form a slurry almost immediately.

I know I should have went for a 220/1000 & 4000/8000 set, but just got what was available here.

Rgds.

Martin