Thread: Anybody ever put their Norton in the Dishwasher?

I haven't done it myself, but I was just throwing a few dishes in there when I looked at my (formerly) yellow and white stone, which doesn't look anything like it did when I bought it a couple of years ago. It's all gray from metal particles and grit that have embedded themselves on the white side.

Maybe the dishwasher wouldn't do much aside from get soap in there or something.

Aside from a small and smooth barber hone of mine, it's my only stone, and I understand people lap theirs from time to time with other ones. Is that why when I see people's stones in YouTube videos, they've managed to maintain that canvas-white / canary-yellow look?

Pumice -- isn't that the other thing? How do I ensure that I don't warp the thing somehow? I think I remember reading about people laying them on glass or something. Is that a surefire way?

I dont think the dishwasher would hurt your stone a bit if you dont use the heating element to dry it, let it air dry, it gets VERY HOT in a dishwasher,and if any water is trapped within the stone and tries to expand as it heats up,CRACK! The only other negative I can forsee is that as time goes buy the metal particulate could eat at the plastic pump, but that would take years and youd never know it.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Yeah, turn off the heated dry.

I'm not worried about water expansion - it's a very porous stone and if a water can get into a crevice it most certainly can get out of it as well. But I can see it cracking if you leave it wet outside. Up there you're probably covered in a foot of snow by this time of the year

I'd hesitate to run it through the dishwasher if any dishes were in it - getting food particles and/or bacteria stuck in the hone seems likely.

Gugi - no snow...yet. We had a wee storm squall last week, but this week has been balmy (around 15c).

Mark

Without the heat, I doubt the dishwasher will do any harm. I just don't see how it would do any good. It sounds like you really need a good lapping. After that, you might want to lap your hones!
If you have all this crap embedded in the hone, then the odds are that the hone is also not flat. Just get some wet/dry sandpaper, put it on your countertop, pour a little water on it, and lap away, occasionally rinsing off the sandpaper. Once it's lapped, you'll have a hone that looks brand new!

why would you want to it wont clean it, you need to lap the norton to make it clean again, should have lapped it anyway after it started to get dirty, or use the nagura stone to rub it clean then lap it

@ Glen, they say its the memory that goes first! At your recommendation I checked my insert, as far as soaking at all time, it says it is not necessary, just start soaking 10 minutes prior to use. As far as extreme temps go it says to keep from freezing.
Asfar as the dishwasher idea goes, I really have to ask why. If you want to clean your stone do so with a scrubbrush under water or just give it a light lapping.

I don't think the pressure buildup will be a problem.
The stone is porous, so the water will release easily, preventing pressure from building up.

What would worry me more is if you put it in the dishwasher together with greasy dishes and other cooking utensils. A lot of grease willbe flying around in the dishwasher, and if it gets soaked up by the porous stone, I don't know how easily it will come off again.

I always lap my nortons on a DMT plate to return the surfaces to as-new.