Thread: How much time/effort should it take to lap a Norton 4k/8k

Oh, btw, I'd do the pencil grid thing twice - lap until the pencil grid disappears, then do it again for good measure. Sometimes the slurry that comes off the stone, or the curled up edges of the wet/dry, or whatever, can erase the pencil marks and make you think its flat when it's really not, or not completely.

Anyway, in terms of lapping frequency I tend to go by the "you get a feel for it" thing. And it depends on your hone. Hard ones need less frequent lapping, other things being equal. If I'm doing up older razors that really need a lot of work, I will sometimes lap the Norton after every couple of razors. If it's just edge refreshes I often don't bother lapping for ages. I find the 4K side needs to be lapped more frequently than the 8k side, for obvious reasons.

If you don't mind rubbing your stone away, you can lap after (or before) every session - particularly easy to do if you have a lapping plate, but not so convenient if you use wet/dry. Bottom line, I try to lap as infrequently as I can get away with, and that depends on how much, and what type of, use I'm putting the stone to.

James.