I finally caved... Mini Norton Review

And bought another synthetic hone. It also happens to be the most expensive hone I've ever bought (at a whopping $35). I bought a King 220/1k (JIS ratings) for $20 and a C12k for the same price. My mom bought me a BBW/coti as a gift, and my gf gifted me an Asagi.

Anyway, I wanted something that would cut faster than my King and wouldn't clog as much. I'd looked into naturals (because I like them for whatever reason) and couldn't find one that seemed suitable (Arkies are slow, Olivia said the Amakusa Red seems to need more pressure to cut well, Aoto seems to fine, etc) so I figured I'd get a synthetic. Nani, Shapton, and Norton were the options (as I saw them). This afternoon in chat, Lynn popped in and I asked him what he thought. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but he made it seem to me like the Norton was the best choice. I checked out Woodcraft and on the site the 220/1k was listed for $36 or so. I called to see if my local Woodcraft had one in stock and they did, so I went over to grab it.

(Side note, while on the Woodcraft site I saw a holder for 20 pens that looked like it could be an excellent option for holding razors. It was also on clearance and marked down from $60 to $40. I took a razor with me to see if it would fit, and the razor was a bit too long. I did take a rather large blade, but, based on my razors, if large blades don't fit, there's no point. Too bad, because they are really nice looking cases.)

So I brought the Norton home and let her soak for a bit. After some time, I went back and put a grid on each side, pulled out my DMT6C, and gave each side a few passes. I say a few, because that's all it took to get the whole grids off. Score one for Norton. I then grabbed two stubborn wedges that I'd been putting off honing and set to work.

That Norton 1k cuts fast! I mean, I find this stone to be a really fast cutter. It also hardly held any of the steel in its surface. I never once refreshed the surface during at least an hour of steady honing, and there wasn't much black buildup at all. I couldn't really tell if this was caused by the hone itself breaking down during use, because the hone is white and all the swarth was black. I also frequently dunked the hone in water because, with a hone this coarse, it needs a lot of water to keep the surface as wet as I like.

I did flip over to the 220 side for a bit, but didn't stay with it too long. The reason is that the 220 side does break down and form a slurry on the surface. This isn't normally bad in my opinion, but I was honing polished wedge blades and I wanted to try to avoid that blurry bevel and possible scratches up the blades from surface grit.

All in all, I'm very happy with this hone, and I know she'll be seeing a lot of use, especially since I tend to have a lot of wedges come my way. I'd also highly recommend the Norton 1k to anyone looking for a good hone to remove a lot of metal. And, my favorite, great value for money.

Oh, I forgot, having a full 8 x 3 inch hone is weird. It looks soooo huge. My widest hone is maybe 2 inches or 2.5, but three just looks gigantic by comparison.

...Hm, maybe this should have gone in the Hones etc section... feel free to move it if necessary.