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I just put a nick in my blade as well. From the sound of tsenw's (sp?) post, about the same size. I have been working on it and am getting it down to just noticeable. My question is, is it doable to go directly from a Norton 4/8 waterstone the the strop and end up with a serviceable edge? I haven't been able to get a coticule yet.
Yes, you can get a shave-able edge from the 8K. It won't be as comfortable, especially for the first few shaves, but stropping will help. You also might want to wrap a few sheets of newspaper around your hone and strop on that for at least a hundred passes. That will slightly polish the edge, though the jump from the 8K will be a bit extreme for it.
When you finish with the 8K honing, just be sure to use a very light touch. That will help.
I suppose it's confession time. How did you nick the blade?
Thanks for the reply and advice. I nicked it by hurrying. I have been fearful of hitting the blade on something when I rinsed it, so I was trying to be very careful. BUT.....this time I carefully placed the blade in the sink water, but then I brought it up too fast, thinking about the next stroke, and brought the blade edge in contact with the sharp edge of the faucet spout. I believe it's called "not paying attention" or "having your head up your........."!
One trick to the Norton 8k that will get more from it...
After you do the regular laps using water, do another 20 laps and just let the stone go to dry as you do them.... As the stone starts to dry use an even lighter touch to the stone, so that the last 10 laps are a feather touch....
Good point. I have found that to be true with just about every finishing stone.
Thanks for the great suggestions! After I quit kicking myself, I'll get to work on finishing that edge. I have done one shave with it, but it obviously wasn't where it should be, just barely serviceable. Thanks again.
Just a thought, don't know how you chipped the blade but if you haven't rounded the edges on your Norton you should. Sometimes if they are not rounded the edge of the hone can micro chip the blade.
I was just honing my chipped edge today on the 4k side of the norton. Holy **** it's taking forever. I taped the spline with electrical tape because i figured i would have to take a lot of metal off to get the chip out. Took me a good hour or two to get the chip out to the naked eye, but under 100x magnification of a cheap radio shack microscope, it's still there!
I'm just going to keep going on the 4k. It's kinda passing the hht already and I'm afraid if I go to lower grit I won't be able to bring it back to shave ready.