Thread: Lapping Norton 4000/8000

After what seemed like forever lapping away on 200 grit and 320 paper the stone looks great except for two small corners. I don't know if you can see in the pic (I don't know how to make it bigger), but there is no way I'll get that worked down with sandpaper. Should I go ahead and get a DMT or will it not be a problem. On the good side I was able to skip my arm workout for the day after working on this forever. Thanks for any help.

that will be fine it's a low spot on the edge it wont be a problem while your honing a dmt imo is faster

one more thing a dmt is super flat so you wont have to worry about if the stone is truely flat

Those are some workhorses! I like them! I recommend a worn out dmt325 to flatten them, under running water, every razor or 3. No doing grids, just watching color. Doesn't take much. I find better uses for worn ones( DMT's) than new ones. Unless, of course, you are removing chips! Then a new DMT is fast!

neverbirdie,

You have plenty of surface area to hone on, so don't worry about the extreme edges

Many natural stones come like that and are none the worse for it !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

If the 4K side of your stone feels nice and smooth with no granularity in the surface you are probably good to go. With my Norton 4/8 I had to lap about an eighth of an inch off of the 4K side to get the surface smooth enough. This was well in excess of what was required to get it flat, but necessary to get the stone working properly.

I would also recommend putting a little more radius on the edges of the stone. You don't want sharp corners.

The corners are no problem. You will rarely even approach them while sharpening. The 4k side does require some work to get it working right. I lap with 3M220 on certified flat granite, then I finish the 4k side with 2000 grit just to smooth out the surface. It leaves the stone ready to use.

Yep, the top layer of those Nortons can be kinda sandy. Somebody told me once that the older ones didn't used to be like that; anybody know if there's any truth to that... and if there is, why they are now?

Thanks for all the input, everyone. Except for those corners they feel great. I was really surprised how rough they were when new. I may hit them with 320 one more time, then get out a razor and give it a try.

Originally Posted by kamikazeproject

Somebody told me once that the older ones didn't used to be like that; anybody know if there's any truth to that... and if there is, why they are now?

Mine is about 5 years old, so it probably wouldn't qualify as an "old" Norton, but the 4K was quite textured when I got it. It had sort a linear pattern on the surface and was fairly porous and granular once I had lapped off the very top layer. For what it's worth, mine predates the relocation of the Norton production facility to Mexico, so that doesn't explain it.

I really think that the issue is that honing razors is on the extreme end of what typically gets honed on a Norton stone so we are more sensitized to surface issues. More of a need to tune the tool for our use than it is an indication of a bad tool.

Lynn could shed the most light on this. I think he's worn out a couple of dozen 4K/8K stones and has probably noticed a few changes over the years.