Thread: Sudden HAD attack. Worth being in the doghouse?

It's a translucent stone. Norton recently started calling it's "Hard" stones "Hard Translucent" stones, but aside from the name change, everything else is the same. This stone is an HB-8 and is marked as "Hard", so I think it's older and the guy just had it lying around for a while. If it were manufactured today it would be marked "hard Translucent" One of the pics on the ad shows a light shining into the stone and it does indeed exhibit translucency. Norton sells their softer stones with the designation of "soft", and that includes stones that other manufacturers would call "hard". Translucent stones can have some color, and every reliable source I have read says that this is not an indicator of the stones hardness, instead this is determined by specific gravity of the stone.

I'm planning on using this one for knives mainly, but at some point I may try it on some razors. I'm expecting it to be a very fine stone and I'll see how it works.

Michael

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

It's a translucent stone. Norton recently started calling it's "Hard" stones "Hard Translucent" stones, but aside from the name change, everything else is the same. This stone is an HB-8 and is marked as "Hard", so I think it's older and the guy just had it lying around for a while. If it were manufactured today it would be marked "hard Translucent" One of the pics on the ad shows a light shining into the stone and it does indeed exhibit translucency. Norton sells their softer stones with the designation of "soft", and that includes stones that other manufacturers would call "hard". Translucent stones can have some color, and every reliable source I have read says that this is not an indicator of the stones hardness, instead this is determined by specific gravity of the stone.

I'm planning on using this one for knives mainly, but at some point I may try it on some razors. I'm expecting it to be a very fine stone and I'll see how it works.

Michael

I actually looked at Norton website and the hb-8 is indeed a translucent so your right, sorry about my last statement, im actually glad it is a real one since i really dont want anybody getting rip off from the bay. That is one of the nicest translucent i ever seen
here the link to norton:
http://www.nortonconsumer.com/upload...atalog-200.pdf

Originally Posted by Piet

It's an Hard Arkansas that is somewhat translucent but it's not a Translucent Arkansas. It should be a decent stone for sharpening knives.

yeah piet i thought the same thing so i looked up norton website and they do lable it a hard translucent. for me i dont like how norton rate's their stones .

Originally Posted by eleblu05

for me i dont like how norton rate's their stones .

It would be nice if they rated their stones similarly to the way Hall's or Dan's rates their stones. I'd like to get a soft norton stone but I have no idea what I would wind up with. My suspicion is that they use stones at the harder end of the spectrum and find ones that are as white as possible, but I have no way of knowing. It would also be nice if they had a black stone.

Michael

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

That's against the rules in my house.....and I'm the one who came up with the rules.

Michael

I've said it before.... alternate shipping address

Translucent is not simply a label - it is a genuine quality of the stone that allows light to pass through the stone. If light cannot pass through the edges of the stone, it is not translucent regardless of how high quality the stone may be.

Actually, Norton through the years only had one designation for their hard stones, and that was "Hard Arkansas" with the model name of HB4, HB6 or HB8 or more recently HM4, HM6 or HM8. Regular hard arkansas stones, translucent stones and black arkansas stones all had the same model number, name and description. It was only recently, if at all, that Norton even used the word "translucent" in its sharpening stone designation. You had to judge the stone by what you saw rather than stone designation because Norton regarded them all the same. I have some stones that are regular hard arkansas, some that are translucent and some that are fine black arkansas and they all have the same Norton or Pike designation.

It is sometimes difficult to tell a translucent stone just from the picture as with poor lighting, you can't see the translucent qualities of some stones while others are obviously translucent in any light. You'll know when you actually get it if you haven't yet, but your stone does not look to be a translucent. A translucent stone is definitely translucent while a non-translucent hard arkansas stone is definitely not. A fine Norton hard arkansas stone is capable of putting an equivalent or nearly equivalent edge as a translucent stone, however the feel isn't the same, even on the finest hard arkansas stones. That's why most people prefer the translucent to a good hard arkansas as it gives a better feel for the edge while sharpening. But both provide excellent edges if they are good quality stones.

I've read the Norton website and I didn't find any of the norton stones being recommended for shaving razors. More concerning a lot of the stones did not give specific grits. The black and translucent ark. seems as good as any based on the co. write ups.

I'm just glad you bought it, because I've been staring at it for two weeks it seems! Just kept telling myself I don't need any more stones, I don't need any more stones... You've saved me! God bless you my good man!

Nice stone -- great for setting bevels. Patience is key!

Stonehenge,

I appreciate your knowledge on the subject and I'm sure you have many arkansas stones, but I disagree with you. All HB-8's were labelled as hard in the past, and all new HB-8s are labelled "hard translucent". The stone has not changed, only the name. All the HB-8s, past or present, are above the specific gravity which would define a translucent stone, and everything I have read on the subject confirms this. Newer stones are marked "Hard Translucent" and are just as they have always been. It's a name change for all HB-8's. There are no new production HB-8s being marked simply "Hard" which are softer than the translucents. Stones softer than the HB-8s are sold with the designation "soft", just as they have always been. I say again, there are no HB-8s which are now being marked as "Hard"! All new production HB-8s are marked as "Hard Translucent"! Stones labelled as "hard" by halls or dan's would be sold as "soft", by Norton just as they always have been.

Anyway, it's all academic at this point. I got the stone yesterday, and it's translucent. And by translucent, I mean that I can see light from a flashlight pass through the stone in a dark room. Yes, light passes directly through the center of the stone from my maglight, in my basement. Compared to my white, opaque hard ark from Halls; this stone is finer feeling and looks different. And by different I mean it looks more translucent. Light passes through the norton and not the halls. I'm looking forward to using this stone for it's intended use: and that's knife sharpening. I may try it on razor's at some point but it's not likely to be my main stone for that ever.

Michael