Thread: Norton 4K/8K first lapping

I just got my 4/8k in the mail today, along with the DMT 325 to lap it with. I've never honed a razor before but I have some coming from ebay to practice on. I pulled the stone out of the box and couldn't believe the rocker on it. The long tail cats around here were scared and run off. I wanted sent it back but I guess this is normal and I'll wait a little bit and read some more, get my stone lapped eventually and see what honing is about. Thanks for the info everyone!

Originally Posted by Roso

I just got my 4/8k in the mail today, along with the DMT 325 to lap it with. I've never honed a razor before but I have some coming from ebay to practice on. I pulled the stone out of the box and couldn't believe the rocker on it. The long tail cats around here were scared and run off. I wanted sent it back but I guess this is normal and I'll wait a little bit and read some more, get my stone lapped eventually and see what honing is about. Thanks for the info everyone!

Well, sorry to hear yours had a lot of rocker too. But glad I'm not the only one. It's just hard to believe they can't get them a little flatter than that. Even though straight razor users might be a small percentage of their market I know woodworkers probably comprise a good percentage. And as a woodworker I have to have my stones perfectly flat to sharpen plane blades and chisels too! I wouldn't even take a knife to that stone out of the box! At least you have a brand new diamond plate so hopefully it won't take you as long to lap.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by Jetmech

Well, sorry to hear yours had a lot of rocker too. But glad I'm not the only one. It's just hard to believe they can't get them a little flatter than that. Even though straight razor users might be a small percentage of their market I know woodworkers probably comprise a good percentage. And as a woodworker I have to have my stones perfectly flat to sharpen plane blades and chisels too! I wouldn't even take a knife to that stone out of the box! At least you have a brand new diamond plate so hopefully it won't take you as long to lap.

Good luck!

IIRC, Lynn mentions in one of his vids that it's a more recent occurrence that the norton 4/8's need more lapping when new. Who knows what the reason for this is, maybe a manufacturing process that changed?

I went old school and got the the Norton 4/8 and lapping stone. I got a king 250/1000 for setting bevels too. Guess I got lucky because they all lapped rather quickly. 8 months or so later and I still shave off the 8k. After a good strop of course. I have about 30 razors now all from e-Bay. Some had chips and others were almost ready. It hear it wasn't too many years back and this was the best you could do for a straight. I am about ready to pop for a finisher but I think I am going to go for a Zulu grey.

Originally Posted by Jetmech

Should I get the Naniwa 12K? Will I notice a difference in smoothness of shave?

The #1 thing about this Art of Using and Maintaining a Straight Razor is; PATIENCE!!

First and foremost, you have the cart before the horse!!!

You need to learn to properly strop, lather and shave with a straight razor before you even begin to think about learning to hone!!

Honing a straight razor is Not an easy thing to do ‘PROPERLY’!

The Naniwa 12K is a Wonderful tool, but until you can get nice and constant edges off of the Norton 4/8 you will be wasting your money, time, energy and steel!!

I don’t mean to discourage you as in fact I’m trying to encourage you to take your time, learn step by step how it all ‘works’! It will all come together!!!

Please don’t try to Run a Marathon, before you learn to walk.

I give my counsel from my own experience! I waited for about a year and a half before I took the leap to learn to properly hone a razor!!

I’m so glad that I did as I had acquired ‘baselines’ as to how the razors felt honed by a Pro. Today I can either come close to or match those original edges!

Take you time, step by step!

Anything more that 5 - 10 mins with a 325 DMT to lap, is way too much time. Your DMT is probably trashed, it happens. Yes they are diamond coated but not bullet proof.

+1 on the Atoma 140, great for lapping new stones and major razor correction. Post 140, I go to the 325 to get it smooth, make sure you use lots of water, either submerged under water or under running water. If you lap not under water you will destroy a new Diamond plate. A few licks to raise a slurry is one thing, lapping for minutes is another. Sixgun has a good video on lapping.

Smooth is more important than flat, dead flat. The razor is only ½ to ¾ wide and only on that much stone at a time, that the entire stone is “perfectly” flat, does not matter. Smooth is what matters, and that is what Lynn was talking about in that Norton thread and video. As you lap with a DMT on a synthetic or any stone you can feel the rough spots in the stone. Once it is smooth, it’s good.

Chances are if you are new to honing you won’t know what that feels like, so don’t grind off the top 1/4 inch of stone. Get it smooth and relatively flat and start honing. If it needs more to come off, you will feel it in the razor. The feel and sound of the blade on the stone should be the same across the whole stone.

Don’t forget to chamfer or round the edges each time you lap the stone or slurry, 1 or 2 strokes. If you don’t, you can develop a ragged edge that will rake across your razor edge with each x stroke.

I imported a set of 20mm Naniwas on stands from Japan and they were pretty flat. Two of them had a slight recess where the sticker was.

The 8k is fairly dense but not sure why was taking so long. I have used 220 wet dry sandpaper in the past with good results. As far as your phig stone, I think a natural stone should leave more of a satin look to the bevel. I just recently switched to Nani 12k, wonderful choice and it gives you a very polished finish if that is what you are looking for. Oh, it puts a very nice edge on it as well.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not new to honing, just new to honing razors. I have lapped stones before and yeah it shouldn't take that long I know. I have King water stones that were pretty flat to begin with and took no time to lap. And yes I could easily tell when the stone was getting smooth. It was just really fat in the center and thin on the ends so that the lapping plate rocked. I had to lap that much off just to get a workable surface because stone was really rough. In previous post I mentioned that I didn't even finish lapping. Good stone once you get it near flat but that's ridiculous even though my diamond plate was worn.