Thread: Norton 8000 feature or flaw?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

That is the question. If the answer is yes I would want a replacement or I would try lapping past the holes if I couldn't get them to agree.

FWIW, I just looked at mine under 45x and it does look the same as yours but no holes.

+1 on the work with Norton for resolution.

Any quality vendor needs feedback and will do the right thing
by their customers. I was pleased but surprised by the advice here that
the surface of a new Norton often needs to be lapped away
but the improvement was real for me. The advice also made
sense the more I considered how a resin bonded hone might be made.
Take a jar of resin add a lot of super classified abrasive, mix very
very well, pour or extrude into a mold, cure the resin in an oven.

As anyone that has made a cake, candy or tried to cast bugs
and shells in plastic knows "bubbles are possible".

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

+1 on the work with Norton for resolution.

Any quality vendor needs feedback and will do the right thing
by their customers. I was pleased but surprised by the advice here that
the surface of a new Norton often needs to be lapped away
but the improvement was real for me. The advice also made
sense the more I considered how a resin bonded hone might be made.
Take a jar of resin add a lot of super classified abrasive, mix very
very well, pour or extrude into a mold, cure the resin in an oven.

As anyone that has made a cake, candy or tried to cast bugs
and shells in plastic knows "bubbles are possible".

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be using a resin process for a stone like this. Resinoid abrasives are usually found in thin, reinforced metal cutting wheels or thick walled cups using very coarse abrasives. These are usually identifiable as resin based wheels turn dark brown/black after the oven, regardless of the color of the abrasive grain.

If anything, it would be a vitrified product, where the finished prdict has a color closer to that of the raw abrasive grain.

Oxychloride and Latex based wheels will have a more whitish to greyish blue tinge from the bonding agents.


Now I'm really going on memory here. 20 years ago, I worked in a grinding wheel factory for 3 summers (student work). Learned a lot about it at the time.

We did resinoid, vitrifed, oxychloride monster wheels as well as latex knife grinding wheels.

My combination 4k/8k Norton, which I purchased new back in early '08, is from Mexico. The 8k side is good, the 4k side was good for a while and then problems began. It has those microholes that pick up swarf, and the lodged swarf caused horrible chipping on my blade. I found I couldn't even do backhoning with it, it turned so gritty. Just a bad stone. It's an angel/devil stone, or a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde stone. It started out nice, turned bad. Who knows, maybe if I dedicated myself to lapping off a ton of material it would turn "nice" again?

Here's the second image I sent to Norton - it shows the dispersion of holes across the entire surface of the 8000 side (major holes circled in pencil). One thing I noted was that there were indeed the beginnings or ends of other holes, too, not circled here - ones that had either yet to be uncovered fully by lapping or had been nearly removed by lapping. One or two of the holes also seem long and thin rather than circular or oval.

Originally Posted by Desdinova

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be using a resin process for a stone like this. Resinoid abrasives are usually found
.......

Perhaps the OP can ask Norton in the process of getting resolution on
this.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Perhaps the OP can ask Norton in the process of getting resolution on
this.

I'm not sure as to how the 8000 would be made (the factory I worked at never went this fine)

But it would be nice to know for the rest of us for future reference.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Perhaps the OP can ask Norton in the process of getting resolution on
this.

I don't expect to hear back from them for another week or so, per their last communication, but I'll see if I can get more information at that time.

Finally got a response from Norton:

"Yes, it does seem irregular to have such pitting. If you would like to exchange the stone please take it back to the retailer where you bought it. They can exchange it and then return it to us for credit."

hmm. They seem to make it a retail exchange issue between me and the vendor, rather than a manufacturer's exchange. Odd, since they acknowledge that it seems to be an irregular stone.

Originally Posted by jlarryc

Finally got a response from Norton:

"Yes, it does seem irregular to have such pitting. If you would like to exchange the stone please take it back to the retailer where you bought it. They can exchange it and then return it to us for credit."

hmm. They seem to make it a retail exchange issue between me and the vendor, rather than a manufacturer's exchange. Odd, since they acknowledge that it seems to be an irregular stone.

As long as you get a new stone that is the important thing. It might be more convenient for you ..... if you bought it locally. Now I guess it depends on the vendor. Please let us know if the new stone has any issues.

Here's the thing: If the holes were just holes, then it would not be an issue as lots of synthetic hones have lots of holes. However, your holes are causing a clicking, so that means that your edge is getting hung up on the edges of the holes. That is absolutely positively not acceptable in my book. If you cannot lap out the trouble in a reasonable period of lapping, then you should definitely get a different hone.