Thread: Norton Out-of-the-Box

Yup always assume it's not flat, that will save some greif.

What grit sand paper are you guys using to get the best results for lapping?

TO test if I had my norton flat, I drew a grid with a number two pencil. Not waterproof, and lapped until it was gone. Is there any other way to tell if I have it flat enough? I seem to be getting some resistance on the 4k side and I am not sure if I have it flat enough. I lapped it quite alot with a flattening stone and the pencil grid, (the best I could do free hand) was gone in a minute or so. Is it lapped sufficiently?

Originally Posted by matt

TO test if I had my norton flat, I drew a grid with a number two pencil. Not waterproof, and lapped until it was gone. Is there any other way to tell if I have it flat enough? I seem to be getting some resistance on the 4k side and I am not sure if I have it flat enough. I lapped it quite alot with a flattening stone and the pencil grid, (the best I could do free hand) was gone in a minute or so. Is it lapped sufficiently?

I sure hope so 'cause that's how I do it. Seems to work so far.

assuming you don't have a lapping stone, what grit sand paper do you use?

I believe on a stone like a norton combo you would start with 220 grit then 600 then 1000.

In my own endeavours I've used 240grit (220's near enough), 400 and 600 but only one of those at a time... depended on what was laying around.

You 'probably' dont need to worry about multiple grits to get the hone lapped.

I flattened a belgian hone today with 240grit only and the resulting surface is smooth as silk...

Drawing a grid on the face with soft pencil is the key to success.... a grid, or a bunch of wiggly lines... it doesnt really matter as long as you have the face of the hone marked up in such a way that it would need to be completely flat to rub the marks off...

I already called the soft pencil the key to success but the real key is knowing that you have an ultra flat work surface to lap the hone on... I am lucky to have use of a commercially ground iron surface plate... but reasonably new plate glass and/or ceramic / slate tiles are good enough.

Greg Frazer

i use 220 grit paper on the 4k side and 400 grit paper on the 8k side with a glass lapping plate i bought from LeeValley. I've heard others use 1000 grit or even more but i tried that and didn't notice a heck of a difference. and finer grits run a risk of clogging the stone