Thread: Norton 4K/8K

I finally got a chance to use my Norton 4K/8K that I bought back in early August. I had been using a Bester 1200 to set the bevel and then J nats (Aoto, Yaginoshima Asagi and Ozuka Asagi) and then stropping on 1/2 and 1/4 micron CBN pastes on Balsa wood strops. Never really got a comfortable shave with any of the blades I had honed. So I picked up the Norton, made sure it was flat and went to town on a few blades. Did much better than I thought with the 4K/8K combo, edge was bright after the 8K and then went to the Ozuka Asagi and Illinois 827 strop for a clean, smooth looking edge under 30X magnification. Got a pretty decent shave, used one of my heavier smiling SR's to shave 7 days worth of coarse growth and 1 pass knocked it down very well with some light stubble, first SR attempt in a few months. I tried to do a Xtg pass, but got a nice cut from it because I was very tired and shaky (out in the AM to go hunting after 4 hrs sleep, shaved that evening). Gonna go back and try re honing all of my SR's now. I think my J Nats weren't fully flat. Many are fairly hard and take forever to truly flatten out, even using diamond plate 140 grit and other methods. Now I have 11 more razors to hone!

Knowing the stone was flat seemed to help me keep a better view on the edge bevel and what I was doing. My J nats are pretty flat, but not as flat as the Norton and the Norton was a bit easier to flatten. I use the J Nats on my kitchen cutlery and that doesn't need a perfectly flat stone; I though by using the X strokes it may compensate for some slight unevenness, but I learned it didn't work that way!

I am awaiting Glens take on this

Added Naniwa Super Stone 1K and 12K to the mix with the 2 Nortons so I have a full set up for my razors and a different set of stones for the kitchen knives. The Naniwa 12K is sweet! Also got a horsehide leather strop and a Roo leather strop to go on a magnetic strop base. Surprised at how much draw the Roo has! It looks like it is untreated, too.

I think you might be putting too much fault in the lack of flatness in your japanese hone. Have you tried shaving off of the 8k? If you cannot get a decent shave there then the higher hones won't fix that. The higher hones will refine an edge but it has to already be a shaving edge.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I think you might be putting too much fault in the lack of flatness in your japanese hone. Have you tried shaving off of the 8k? If you cannot get a decent shave there then the higher hones won't fix that. The higher hones will refine an edge but it has to already be a shaving edge.

I couldn't have said it better! Thank you! :

The edges I get off the 8K can sometimes tree top arm hair and as I go up, they tree top the arm hair better and better. I can shave arm hair starting much lower grit wise with contact with the skin. With the J Nats, I was having trouble getting the bevel set and polished as I worked my way up the stones. It was difficult to get the edge bevel cleaned up at the very edge with the J Nats and hit all the way to the very edge evenly. With the new stones that are flatter, I can get the actual edge much more refined than I was before. I still use my Ozuka Asagi for the final stone occasionally, but with the new synthetic stones, the quality/evenness of the bevel is much cleaner. The 1K Naniwa SuperStone feels smoother than the 4K Norton, the 8K Norton isn't too bad feel wise.

If your bevels are set properly ( <<< a must) then you should just go thru the 4/8k with all your blades and try them out. If you can't get bbs off the 8k Norton then anything you do after that is like polishing a dog turd :<0)

The next time Glen posts what I'm going to attempt to 'Quote' I'm going to copy and paste it and save it so I can actually provide a direct quote. With that said I like what Glen says when he posts something close to this;

Synthetics are Science, Naturals are Romance.

This is what you are finding out with the Norton 4/8. I've posted time and time again that if I were to drop my Naniwa 12k I could live off of my Norton 8k edge for the rest of my life. However If I were to drop and break my 4/8 I'd eat peanut butter sandwiches day in and day out until I could afford a new one.

As has been mentioned if the bevel isn't set then all other work is for naught. Keep working on getting a good bevel set then work on getting a Clean, Close and Comfortable Shave off of the 8k then play to your hearts content on the others.

Have fun!

Yeah, the Synthetics are much easier for me to keep an eye on the bevel set at the 1K stage and as I go up, make sure I am still hitting the actual edge with each stone and the bevel remains "set". With the uneven J Nats, the bevel wasn't staying "set" as I worked my way up the stones. The Norton 4/8 showed me that and the 8K showed me what a nice polished edge looks like! The Naniwa 1K Super Stone seems to have a little different feel from my Bester 1200 that I used the last time to set the edge and with the eye loupe, I was able to see a little better when the bevel was actually set. The Bester 1200 set the bevel fine, but the Naniwa feels a bit better with the razors; it has a creamier feel to it. Way smoother feeling than the Norton 4K actually!

Originally Posted by taz575

The Naniwa 1K Super Stone seems to have a little different feel from my Bester 1200 that I used the last time to set the edge and with the eye loupe, I was able to see a little better when the bevel was actually set. The Bester 1200 set the bevel fine, but the Naniwa feels a bit better with the razors; it has a creamier feel to it. Way smoother feeling than the Norton 4K actually!

That is the enticement of trying different hones. Many will get the job done but they will do it in different ways.