Thread: Cut down nortons too small?

If I decided to get a set of the quarter Nortons from Whippeddog would they be too small to adequately learn on? Should I just save my money is what I guess I really mean. I'm dying to start learning to hone, just cant quite justify the cost of hones to my wife yet though. She stopped buying the "but it will save us money" line a LONG time ago. Lol. There is just something that seems very awesome about shaving with a piece of steel you yourself made sharp. What I guess maybe I should do is put a thing up in the classifieds to see if someone wanted to go in with me to buy a set of nortons and then we'd just cut those in half and have a half instead of a quarter set for roughly the same money.

Sorry if this came off goofy sounding or rambling. It's late and I'm exhausted. Night y'all.

There was another thread on this, I believe.

Personally, I don't like short hones, and couldn't imagine setting a bevel or doing sharpening work on such a short runway. I don't even like it for a finisher/touchup, though, so that's based on my own prefirence.

I would wait until I could get a Norton 4/8 and use sandpaper on a flat surface to lap until I could afford a DMT D8C ...... or just keep using the sandpaper. Lot of guys do. I personally would have a hard time honing on a surface that small. YMMV.

Yes, they're too small to learn on unless you are the kind of person that believes learning things the hard way will build character

I have done that exact thing, I kept hearing that Narrow hones were easier for honing Smiling blades (not true) so some years back another restorer AaronX and I split a full set on Nortons 220/1k and 4k/8k. He ended up with the hones for free somehow, and the deal was if I cut them down and lapped them up we would split them. I used 5 of the cheapest 24tpi Hacksaw blades made from Homedepot to do the cutting, the 220/1k was easy the 4k/8k was a PITA and took quite awhile... I smoothed up all the rough edges on my belt sander and then lapped them flat...
Honestly I have used those Narrow hones maybe 5 times, they do nothing that the full size ones can't do... Now your idea of saving some money by spliting the cost is possibly a way to go...

They are aprox. 1.30 x 8 inches

Glen, I believe he is talking about hones cut 8" divided by 3 ..... not cutting lengthways but three chunks or maybe it is 2 pieces halved .... IOW 3 or 4" long.

Sounds like a bad idea to me, especially if you're learning. Learn with the real tools or it'll be too much of a pain for you to want to keep at it.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Glen, I believe he is talking about hones cut 8" divided by 3 ..... not cutting lengthways but three chunks or maybe it is 2 pieces halved .... IOW 3 or 4" long.

Ohhhhhhhhh !!!!!

Gah, no just leave them their normal size lol.

A while back I cut my Nortons in half length-wise, since I believed they would be easier to use. I used them just fine and had no problems, but I was experienced enough at honing at the time to know how to use them properly. But, I no longer believe it was beneficial as using narrow stones can lead to other potential problems, especially if you are trying to learn on them. If the stones you are considering are not the narrow one, but simply shorter, I think the same applies; it would likely lead to problems. I think you're by far better off just going with the regular sized Nortons, despite the extra expense. It'll be worth it in the long run.