Thread: Norton stone claning

Although it will not flatten your stone, the Chosera rubbing stone really cleans up a Norton well and does not remove much material.

Originally Posted by kelbro

Although it will not flatten your stone, the Chosera rubbing stone really cleans up a Norton well and does not remove much material.

Norton also makes a rubbing stone for exactly this purpose.

A Scotch Brite sponge works, as does almost any stone or 3-400 grit diamond plate.

It depends on what you want to accomplish, if it is just getting the swarf off a Scotch-Brite and/or a small stone, like a small Ark. I keep a small translucent Ark on the honing bench just for this.

If you want to flatten or smooth a bit and clean, then a 3-400 diamond plate for just a couple laps.

The Naniwa Super Stones are notorious for this load up, and I regularly clean my 12k with a Scotch Brite or Ark, rather than get up and walk to the sink and lap.

That's kind of what I was thinking. A lot of the time I can get most of the swarf off just by spritzing them with my spray bottle and scrubbing with my finger pads. Scotch brite also seems to work wonders. Depends on if the stone is actually loaded up, or just has some errant junk sticking to the surface.

You do want to get that swarf off, it may be from you tape, if using tape.

Either way it diminishes contact with the steel and the stone, affecting performance.

As with most things, it is easier to maintain the stone face and remove it early, before it builds up and especially before the finishing strokes.

When using tape, stop if you feel the slightest bobble or grit on the stone. More than likely, you have or are about to burn through your tape.

More importantly, burning through a taped spine, alters the bevel angle. Bits of tape on the stone can also cause a defect or damage an edge.

So, stop and replace the tape, tape is cheap…

When learning to hone, replacing tape often, when needed and at each stone change.

With respect to the Naniwa rubbing stone - I tried it on my Norton 1, 4, and 8K hones tonight. Wasn't really a fan. It cleaned up the 8K stone pretty good, smooth bright yellow surface left behind. But it turned the 4K a dingy orange color indicating the stone was impregnated with Naniwa dressing stone bits. And I'm picky when it comes to cross contamination. I don't want anything on my stones but the grit they were made of if at all possible. Needless to say the 4K needs a good lapping now to remove the dressing stone bits that I couldn't scrub out.

Interestingly enough, that didn't seem to be a problem on the 1K. But it also didn't do a thing to clean that up, the 1K just ate away at the dressing stone. So I guess I'll be lapping the 1K too. Kind of strange that the dressing stone is too soft to do anything at all to the 1K, cleaned the swarf from the 4K but also got abraded enough to contaminate it, yet cleaned up the 8K without a hitch. It also did pretty well on the Naniwa 800, but I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that it works well for the line it was designed to work with and doesn't play well with another. YMMV.

Originally Posted by Marshal

With respect to the Naniwa rubbing stone - I tried it on my Norton 1, 4, and 8K hones tonight. Wasn't really a fan. It cleaned up the 8K stone pretty good, smooth bright yellow surface left behind. But it turned the 4K a dingy orange color indicating the stone was impregnated with Naniwa dressing stone bits. And I'm picky when it comes to cross contamination. I don't want anything on my stones but the grit they were made of if at all possible. Needless to say the 4K needs a good lapping now to remove the dressing stone bits that I couldn't scrub out.

Interestingly enough, that didn't seem to be a problem on the 1K. But it also didn't do a thing to clean that up, the 1K just ate away at the dressing stone. So I guess I'll be lapping the 1K too. Kind of strange that the dressing stone is too soft to do anything at all to the 1K, cleaned the swarf from the 4K but also got abraded enough to contaminate it, yet cleaned up the 8K without a hitch. It also did pretty well on the Naniwa 800, but I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that it works well for the line it was designed to work with and doesn't play well with another. YMMV.

Worked great on my Norton 4K but mine was an older one. Also worked very well on Shapton Glass hones 10K and 16K.