Thread: Wanting to pull the trigger

After Christmas I was thinking of getting the norton combo kit from amazon:

Amazon.com: Norton Waterstone Starter Kit: 220/1000 grit stone, 4000/8000 grit stone, SiC flattening stone: Home Improvement


But I found this on the bay:
3-Piece Sharpening Set - eBay (item 360212223729 end time Dec-27-09 04:43:25 PST)

Is there anything I should watch out for with this set of Chinese stones aside from how slow they will cut? Or should I stick with the Norton set because I have zero honing experience?

I would go with the Norton set. It is well known by many of the senior members here. There is voluminous info on it within the SRP Wiki and the forum archives and if you post a fresh question someone will be able to respond because they know the hones. Also they are darn good hones IME. Spend another $20 to $30 and get a Chinese 12K from Woodcraft and you'll have the best of both worlds. Just IMHO.

When I read the title of your thread my first thought was; "Hey, this guy knows my ex-wife" ::ba dump bump::

back on topic, I've done a lot of reading and don't own any hones yet but those are the ones I will be going for when I do.

I found the same Norton set here plus a waterstone pan www.ptreeusa.com

Thanks for all the info gents.

Slamthunderide,
Thanks for that website I like the looks of that water tray.

If you aren't restoring razors, the norton kit is unnecessary. Really the only stone you'd ever use to maintain a razor would be the 8k, and there are much cheaper touch-up hones available (the norton 8k is a nice stone by all accounts, but not worth it as a touch up imho... the advantage of the Set is you get a whole set for barely more than the 8k sells for solo). That said, if you need a whole starter set for restoring, I have yet to hear any one even suggest that the Norton set would be a bad move. And there are a LOT of people who've used it, so that's a lot of people happy with it.