Thread: dumping the norton

I am thinking about dumping the norton 4k/8k and moving up or onto something else as a base hone. I know the Norton has a great reputation for bieng the best bang for your dollar hone but It just is not the case for me. I get better edges on my barber hone than on a norton.

What would be a good choice to supplement the 4k/8k combination hone. I heard the dmt 8000 is good. I already have some pasts on a 4 sided paddle 3.0 diamond, 1.0 diamond, and .5 chromium oxide. I have a swaty barber hone which I find perfect for keeping a razor sharp, and a DMT 325 for lapping. The pastes work as a hone I know, but I really would prefer the edge off of a stone. Let me know what ideas you guys have out there. Thanks in advance.

Well, I hear the Spyderco series of medium, fine, and ultrafine are a huge hit and an excellent value - you could also go Belgian blue and coticule? I have a coticule and love it as my finishing stone - and with a slurry it works somewhere in the 4000 to 6000 range (without slurry ~10,000). A Belgian blue is coarser than this of course, but also produces and excellent edge, from what I hear, and can be used with or without a slurry.

Just my $0.02...

Keep us posted on what you decide and how you like it.

Mark

You mean replace instead of suplement?
If I had to replace my trusty Norton right now, I'd probably buy shaptons glass stones. They seem very good, and you could use the same type of stone from 1000 grit all the way to 16K and 30K, which is probably great for consistency.

I've just picked up a DMT 8000 (D8EE) hone. I've only used it for maybe 2x 10 minute sessions so far, but at the moment I'm not particularly impressed.

It feels quite rough at the moment, with quite a few areas which 'snag' the razor. However apparently this is normal and the hone will smooth out somewhat with use, the rough areas apparently will hone just fine and not cause any damage (so they say).

I think I need to give it a little more time to settle in, and hopefully I'll start getting good results. I definitely can not get a shaving edge off this just at the moment, I use this first then a progression of diamond pastes.

It's quite cool that its perfectly flat though, and stays flat, and doesn't need soaking before use.

Matt, I don't know how long you've been honing, and I'm no expert, but you might want to think about hanging on to your Norton - even while you check out other stones. A couple of times I thought I wanted to replace the Norton as my go to stone (especially after reading so much chatter around here ) - only to come back to it when I ran into difficulties. If you don't touch it for a year, then get rid of it. Just a thought.

Jordan

Originally Posted by Steelforge

I've just picked up a DMT 8000 (D8EE) hone. I've only used it for maybe 2x 10 minute sessions so far, but at the moment I'm not particularly impressed.

It feels quite rough at the moment, with quite a few areas which 'snag' the razor. However apparently this is normal and the hone will smooth out somewhat with use, the rough areas apparently will hone just fine and not cause any damage (so they say).

I think I need to give it a little more time to settle in, and hopefully I'll start getting good results. I definitely can not get a shaving edge off this just at the moment, I use this first then a progression of diamond pastes.

It's quite cool that its perfectly flat though, and stays flat, and doesn't need soaking before use.

I also recently purchased one of these. While it is nice that it is perfectly flat, I am equally unimpressed with the smoothness. I may use it to flatten my Norton 4K/8K and see if this takes some of the roughness out of it. I just was not expecting this from something that was close to the equivalent of the Norton 8K.

Matt,

The issues you're having with the Norton seem similar to the ones I had, from what I've gathered. It could be that a Norton edge doesn't suit your beard very well. I suspect that you might find the Shaptons behave in a similar fashion. I haven't tried them myself, but from what I've heard I think there are similar challenges.

You might try natural hones, like the Belgian blue/coticule progression. It seems like a few guys who had trouble with their Nortons experienced better results with natural hones.

If you like barber hones, the Spydercos might be a good option.

I'd steer clear of the DMT 8K. I think you'd find that it worked OK but that you still needed some polishing afterward, which puts you back on the market for a finishing hone.

For what it's worth, as much as I love my hones, I still need to finish my edges on chromium oxide for them to really be comfortable.

Josh

The issues you guys are having with the DMT 8K sound like the usual DMT break-in problems. I haven't used an 8K extensively, but I have about 10 DMT hones, and all needed some break in. Do a search in the archives for details.

For me, I find that the edges from the more aggressive media, like the Nortons, Shaptons and diamond pastes, shave pretty well but cause irriation. I prefer edges from natural hones and chromium oxide.

I suspect that the 8K DMT would leave a relatively harsh edge. It would probably work great for some guys and not so well for others.

Josh

I've recently got a DMT D8EE (my first DMT) to "upgrade" the Norton 4K/8K and it is definitely worth while breaking it in lapping the Norton or running a knife or chisel over it for a while before taking a razor to it.

Now I'm a relative honing newbie only having 3 razors but as far as a comparison to the Norton goes :-
It cuts fast, not sure if it is faster than the 4K but faster than the 8K
I managed to get a new wapi passing the HHT using nothing but the D8EE, I've never got a razor to pass the HHT off the Norton - EVER, I usually have to use Chromium Oxide for that.

I had a little trouble at first but I made a fatal mistake of not only introducing a new piece of equipment but I was also changing my honing technique - going from two handed to one handed.

All in all I like it and the not having to lap and soak it is a definite plus.

Barney

Yeah, the D8EE is great for a number of things, comfort is not one of them.

If your looking for an upgrade in the comfort aspect, look elsewhere. If your looking for a hone that gets the razor ready for a finishing stone with the least amount of prep, fuss and time spent, by all means, pick one up.

I routinely take a butter knife like edge from the 325 to the 1k, then to the 8k (all DMT's) then finish on a Coticule/Thuringian/Chinese stone, and in approx. 30 minutes the blade is scaring hairs in half. (but for general maintenance the 8k and a finishing stone or pasted strop would be all you'd need).

The DMT 8k is just one of many routes you can take. I use 'em for convenience, since I really only get satisfaction out of natural stones when they are in the finishing grit ranges.