Thread: My Norton 4k is WAY more coarse than Naniwa 1k

I had what seemed to me like a great bevel set on my Dovo "Best Quality" carbon steel razor off of my 1k Naniwa. It shaved arm hairs smoothly, and looked very even and clean under my 15x lighted loupe, so I felt I couldn't set a bevel any better than that. Lapped/rinsed my 4k stone a bit and did 25 x-strokes as light as I could with the stone very wet. After that I tried shaving arm hairs, and it had completely dulled the edge of my razor so that it wouldn't shave any arm hair at all. It just scrapes right over my skin and feels dull as hell.

When honing on the 4k is sounded and felt like 5 times more coarse than it did with the 1k Naniwa; it was like I was honing on a piece of sandpaper, much much louder and much more coarse, even with the stone completely soaked and a big puddle of water sitting on it. Honing with the 1k was more comparable to my Norton 8k. It was a lot smoother and quieter and didn't feel as though I was removing much material.

I've always seemed to have problems using my 4k Norton, and yes, I did lap a lot of it off to get down to the "good part". I'm using the 4k/8k combo, and I don't know how thick each layer starts off as, but I've lapped the 4k side down to around 3/8 thickness. Maybe that's not far enough? But I'm just starting to think there is no "good part" to this 4k.

I'm going to get my bevel back to where it was before, and then try going straight to my 8k to sharpen and polish. I'll post results when I get around to it.

Some hints on the Nortons

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...on-2012-a.html

and if you want to go Bevel straight to Polisher

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...lynn-glen.html


Is your bevel REALLY set ???? are ya sure


http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-1k-shave.html

I hear the Norton 4K needs a lot of lapping, as it has some sort of "skin" that needs to be removed prior to use. Hope that helps.

I love the 4K. Back in the day when I only had one hone (Norton 4K/8K) I did it all with that stone and all the heavy work with the 4K. To me it's a real universal hone depending on how you use it stroke and pressure wise. These days I lap it but way back I didn't because I didn't know any better but it still worked fine unlapped.

My 4k feels rougher than a SS 1k and a Chosera 1k, but it does give a finer edge. Haven't looked at the scratch patterns recently enough to remember, cause I really don't care much about scratch patterns these days.

Never had a problem with my 4k in combo before I sold that to get the single grit I've been using for the past four years or more. Goes without saying ......... YMMV.