Quote Originally Posted by grunion View Post
...to you guys. Since I'm still in that uncomfortable place where folks who haven't yet learned how to hone are trying to establish a reliable feedback loop between what they do with the hone and what the results look and feel like, I had another plan: I was going to go about 100 laps on an 800 grit stone, a 1K stone, and then a 1.2K stone, using Japanese "nagura" slurry, just to see what would happen. But based on the replies to this thread, I'm thinking that might just make things worse, and that it might be better to go right to my 4k. Two questions, then: Shall I use the nagura stone on the Norton 4K to create a slurry? And, any ideas at all about roughly how many laps? I know that can't really be determined without seeing the blade (BTW, it's a decent-but-unremarkable Gregg Howe Sterling Special No. 1001, 6/8), but are we likely to be talking more like 50, or more like 1000?

Thanks as always for your time.

>>>denis
You do not need to use a slurry/nagura stone on the Norton. You should probably be looking at between 50-100 laps on the 4K not anywhere near 1000 if there are no micro-chips in the blade. I would recommend doing a search for "pyramid" because Lynn's pyramid method is a very common way to consistently and quickly get a razor sharp, especially if you don't really know what you are looking for with respect to sharpness.