Thread: Why are nortons so popular?

I'm a cook and I come from the world of kitchen knives where nobody really uses nortons. In fact I don't even think mark at chefknivestogo even sells them and he carries almost everything. Now all of a sudden I come to the world of straight razors and everybody is using nortons. What is it about them that makes them so popular?

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Also, do nortons use japanese or american grits?

A large honing surface, easy to use and understand due to its consistency. Natural stones have a lot of variance in cutting ability. Nortons can be depended on. Almost everyone here at one time or another has had or used or are stlll using the Nortons. Nortons can be bought in a number of grits or combinations of grits for versatility.

Everything nun2sharp said, plus they are a bit more affordable than most of the other popular synthetic hones.

They're relatively cheap, simple, low maintenance (they need very little lapping except for cleaning @ the pressures we use for honing) & reliable. They're not the best @ any one thing, but they're excellent all-rounders. That & practically everyone has used them so there's lots of advice if somebody new runs into a problem. Also, you can get a very good shave straight off the 8K.

Originally Posted by infamous

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Also, do nortons use japanese or american grits?

Pretty sure they don't use JIS--I think I remember reading the 8K Norton is about 6K JIS.

Originally Posted by PA23-250

Pretty sure they don't use JIS--I think I remember reading the 8K Norton is about 6K JIS.

That doesn't sound right, if they use american it would be the other way around I think. And thats confusing because if people are saying it should be so sharp at such and such grit, what grit are they talking about? I'm only used to Japanese grit because I've only ever used Japanese stones. At first I thought all waterstones used Japanese grit and American grit was for sand paper.

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I did my own research and nortons use japanese grit

Originally Posted by infamous

I'm a cook and I come from the world of kitchen knives where nobody really uses nortons. In fact I don't even think mark at chefknivestogo even sells them and he carries almost everything. Now all of a sudden I come to the world of straight razors and everybody is using nortons. What is it about them that makes them so popular?

edit

Also, do nortons use japanese or american grits?

They work very well for straight razors. They are consistent and reliable.

How many straight razors has Mark sharpened since he started handling straight razor sharpening products in addition to his knife sharpening stock???? You don't need to answer.........lol.

Have fun,

Lynn

Think of them like the Chevy of the razor sharpening world.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Think of them like the Chevy of the razor sharpening world.

I think of them as the Glock. They ain't pretty but they always work and the last and last .... unless you're Lynn Abrams, then they last until they are worn clean out .... still a mighty long time.

Yes, they use the Japanese grit rating system. They came along well before the Shapton Glass & Naniwa hones. At that time they were the most effective hone available for straight razors, consistent in performance, sufficently aggressive so that it did not take hours to get a great edge and reasonable cost. That combination gave them a great big head start over over the others. They are still my "go to" hones.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Think of them like the Chevy of the razor sharpening world.

That explains it, I'm a Ford man therefore I don't own a Norton 4K/8K...no...wait, actually I'd love to have one but haven't scraped together the required $$$ Maybe one day.