Thread: Lapping (or laughing?) my norton stone

Hey all. I've got a Norton 4/8000 stone and I think by now it needs a good refinishing (lapping or laughing, I still don't know the right way to pronounce it and haven't yet seen it in writing). There werent any help files on it in the archives and since I didn't know how to spell it (or say it for that matter) I couldn't find any previous threads on it. Its my understanding that some people use some wet/dry sandpaper along with something flat like a block of wood. My question is what grit of paper should I be using? Should I use a different size grit for each side? Is there anything else less obvious than just applying water and sanding? Thanks guys.

Hello,

I had a pretty dirty norton 4/8. I bought a pumice stone from classicshaving.com and I just rub it along the norton and it pretty much makes it look new. Try to use even pressure and all so you don't mess up the surface. There is a video out there of this being done. It was by Brian D. Search the site and you can watch him do this.

Check this out...

Honing

He also has more stuff to watch related to straight stuff. Check it out.

If your stone is just dirty then place it under running water and rub it with a nylon pad or brush to remove the metal filings (called swarf). Or you can use the pumice stone under running water. Just be sure to rub the stone with your fingers under running water afterwards to remove any loose embedded particles.

If it needs lapping (flattening) then use a fine grit sandpaper, the finer the better(1000-2000 grit for a Norton), and again, at the end, place the hone under running water and rub it with a nylon pad or brush and your fingers to remove any embedded loose particles.

When you first start on the sandpaper perform 15-20 laps then turn the hone over and look at the wear pattern. It will show you the high/low spots. Then perform another 25 laps using an X pattern and check again. When the color and texture/finish is the same over all the hone then you are done. This should be very fast with the Norton.

Use a wet/dry sandpaper and keep the paper wet.

Another way to do this is to use another fine hone and rub them together. I use my Chinese 12000 hone because no particles come off of that hone that I can tell. I would also be comfortable using a fine Arkansas stone, black or translucent, for this job ( just make sure they are flat).

We need a help file on this don't we?

Yea, it seems like the sorta thing we might want a helpfile for. Yay for proactive people. I'll just give it a good cleaning and hone up my razor. In the future, I'm sure I'll have to do this, but I remember looking for wet dry sandpaper at the hardware store and they didnt have any grit sizes over a few hundred. Where does one find sandpaper that fine? Thanks guys.

I would think that automotive stores would have the sandpaper in those grits for wetsanding in bodywork.

RT

Originally Posted by 440stainless

Yea, it seems like the sorta thing we might want a helpfile for. Yay for proactive people. I'll just give it a good cleaning and hone up my razor. In the future, I'm sure I'll have to do this, but I remember looking for wet dry sandpaper at the hardware store and they didnt have any grit sizes over a few hundred. Where does one find sandpaper that fine? Thanks guys.

You can pickup the finer grit wet/dry sandpaper at Lee Valley and Klingspor. While you're at Lee Valley, check out their Diamond Bench Stones. I use their 10" 600x/1200x for lapping my water stones and woodworking tools.

Another place to pick up wet/dry sandpaper in the finer grits is from Keith at www.handamerican.com
He has silicon/carbide in grits up to 2500 and is a great person to deal with.