Thread: Do I need to return my Norton?

I've used my Norton 4K/8K to hone maybe four or five times, and I've started noticing some problems with the 8K side.

When I got the stone I lapped it straight away, and both sides were really smooth and flat.

First couple of times I used it I didn't notice any problems on the 8K side. The next time I came to hone, I noticed a slight "tick", "tick","tick" sound as I went along the 8K side, and could feel the razors jumping up ever so slightly . I lapped the hone again today, and the problem is more pronounced; like there are small pieces of grit embedded in the 8K side !

Has anyone else encountered this, and did you manage to get the gritty bits out, maybe by lapping it loads? Anyone think lapping it a few more times would work, or do I need to send it back to the retailer?

Cheers, guys
Leon

It could be that you have bits of the lapping material stuck in the stone. I use a nylon scrubbing pad (scotch-brite, etc) under running water to go over the stone after lapping to remove any remaining material.

Jordan

I had the same problem with my 4K side. I was using sandpaper on a marble tile (all under running water, of course), and lapped unitl the Norton got pretty flat. The 8K side felt super smooth, but I could feel "ticks" along the 4K surface.

What I finally did was to buy a DMT D8F plate (I know that's a little fine to some for lapping) and lost fear of removing some surface. I lapped until I thought that was enough, and then I lapped some more. I also beveled the sides a little too, so that there was no rough edge of the stone to catch the tang of the razor as I honed.

Now my 4K side feels as smooth as the 8K side, except of course it has more drag.

I am sure the sandpaper would have eventually done the job, but for me, I was afraid of taking off too much of the Norton. After all, that thing is expensive, and I didn't want to see my cash disappear in little granules down the drain.

It wound up not being a lot I had to take off, but I did notice that the 4K thickness is slightly less than the 8K side. That little bit makes a BIG difference for my razors.

Did you lap on sand paper?

As has already been said it could be bits of grit becoming embeded from that.

I lapped my Norton 4k/8k yesterday with sand paper and encountered the same problem. Using to a proper lapping stone appears to have resolved the issue. Or at least I hope it has!

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I lapped it on 600 sandpaper, but I've gone over it a couple of times (very thouroughly) with a scotch-pad, and it's definitely the surface of the stone that's the problem.

I don't mind losing some stone if I have to lap the the problems out, though I'd really rather not lose any of course. Trouble is, I don't wanna lap the bejeezus out of it, then, finding that doesn't work, return it to the retailer and have them question its age and condition.

Search for an infamous post about "imbedded grit" in the Norton stones. It had been argued, or a past member attempted to argue that he thought Norton stones were plagued with such a manufacturing defect on a fairly frequent basis. While not-discounted completely, I believe the general consensus is that on rare occasion, there can be an actual manufacturing defect the symptoms of which are the same as what you describe. I recall a few people who have experienced that returned their Nortons to the manufacturer for exchange?

Chris L

Cheers, I'll check-out the thread. I read a couple of times that the manufacturing quality went down when they switched from making them in the U.S to making them in Mexico, and mine is made in Mexico.

lapped mine on a 600 paper and glass plate. no issues.

then i lapped on a brand new norton lap stone, had the same issues. the grit embedded in mine actually started putting chips into my edge. i ended up taking the edge back down to 1000 and starting over after digging the particles out. no issues now, but still a concern for next time.

vgod

I discarded my Norton 4k/8k and switched to the DMT 600, 1200 and my Franz Swaty and now I get razors shaving nicely in about 10 minutes.