New respect for the Norton, and a little praise for one of our members...
Approximately a year ago, I broke my Norton hone. I loved the thing, but, however, have put off replacing it until now.. I have this obsessive (almost) goal, of finding a small, easy to travel, low maintenance hone that will replicate the results of the Norton no fuss, no muss. A 4k/8k ceramic or diamond hone would be just the thing, if you will...so, rather than buy a new Norton, I tried all sorts of other hones. So far, I have not found such a hone...
Fast forward to just yesterday; one of our members lives nearby, wanted me to check out his technique on the Norton. Well, I may have said one or two things, but the guy has it down. He took an edge to shave ready in less than 2 minutes on the Norton, and suddenly I remembered why I liked mine, as well....(that takes a LOT longer on a barber hone...)
David (heavydutysg35) has it down, made it look easy, even. HHT sharp off the hone.
There are hones out there that will produce the same, perhaps even a better edge, but I've yet to find one that does it so fast....
And David, thanks for the kick in the pants....I've been procrastinating on replacing the thing long enough. IMHO the edges you are getting are good to go.
John P.