How much work to lap some naturals
I just picked up 3 mystery stones yesterday at the local antique mall. They smell like a farmer spilled some motor oil on them in '58 and then left them in an old run down barn since then. I gave them all a nice hot soapy scrub to clean them up, which has lessened the old oil stink quite a bit.
1 stone looks like the workhorse of the group. Its really used and awfully dished. Feels like all of the other hones I had held before I started honing razors. Probably really great for pocket knives and other tools. I would expect no more than 1000 grit out of this.
The other two are dark brown and awfully smooth. They were mostly flat to start with, and I couldnt wait. I pulled a razor from the restore bin and it seems that one cuts reasonably quick (4k ish) and the other looks to be a higher grit/slower stone.
Now, my actual question. How much work should be required to lap these things? My went at 1 last night for about 30 minutes with some 120 grit paper. I was able to remove most of the pencil marks, but not all. I went through 2 pieces of sandpaper.
This is far more work than my norton required to get flat. Is this normal? Do I just keep working? Am I changing the sandpaper often enough?
I'll post pictures tonight.