Norton flattening stone

does anyone own a Norton Flattening stone? i hear people talking about the glass with the sand paper but i figure if its gonna last me decade + then its prolly worth the investment.


http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5775 u can find them cheaper but this is a link to the product.



also, when you flatten your hones, how high sand paper grit should be used? i got a 12000grit chinese one and im a bit weary on using 1k sandpaper on it thinking it will leave valleys in my stone. will it? will it do the same to a 8k norton?


~J

The glass idea is a good one. I got a 15x15 inch 3/8 as suggested ($18). I thought my Swaty was flat until I put it on the glass. Immediately saw that it was high in the middle and the coticule is high on one edge. There is a thread here on lapping stones with the sandpaper grits. I have been using from 320 up to 2000 to finish. Some reccommend as low as 120 to start.
If you use the figure 8 you shouldnt have valleys.

The Norton flattening stone is about 220 grit, or around there. I found it necessary for one of my Norton 8K stones, because there was a large football shaped divit in the middle of the stone and 400 grit on glass was going too slow. The Norton flattening stone will wear the stone quickly, though. I follow up with 400 grit and then 1200 grit on glass.

E

I own the Norton Flatting stone, though I rarely use it any more. I found it to be way to agressive on my stones. The Norton 8k side in particular. It left the surface extremely rough and I wound up having to break out the granite surface plate and fine grit sand paper to correct what I had done. When I bought the flattening stone the instructions in the case also stated that over time and depending on use it too will have to be flattened so if I had to do it all over again then no I would not buy the Norton Flattening stone. If I had to guess I would say that this stone probably in the neighborhood of 300 grit. Of course I could be mistaken. Norton suggests using 400-600 grit to lap their 4/8k stones and if you would like to finish it off with maybe 1200-1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper. This is how I do it. I also bought my granite surface plate from woodcraft.com. I live in townhouse and having sheets of glass lying around was not an option. Just my 2$ worth. :)

If your norton is flat but the surface too rough, I wonder if it would suffice to raise a slurry and rub it against something smooth and flat, but not necessarily abrasive.

i.e., flatten the stone with the 300 grit, and then raise a slurry and rub it against a glass plate. In theory, the slurry should smoothen the surface of the stone all by itself, no?

Redwoood

I don't have the Norton but I do have the Shapton flattening plate. The good thing about it is you can use the kind of grit you want to use to do the proper job.

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If your norton is flat but the surface too rough, I wonder if it would suffice to raise a slurry and rub it against something smooth and flat, but not necessarily abrasive.

i.e., flatten the stone with the 300 grit, and then raise a slurry and rub it against a glass plate. In theory, the slurry should smoothen the surface of the stone all by itself, no?

Redwoood

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It did not occur to me to try this. When I first used the Norten Flattening Stone and saw the results I was a little upset. It had left horrendous surface scrathes on the surfaces of my Norton 8k. The only thing I was thinking of at the time was of the immediate removal of said surface scrathes so that might might be an interesting idea to try out. In the mean time I tried calling Woodcraft today out of curiousity to try and find out more about the grit of the Norton Flattening plate and the salesman I bought it from could not shed any more light on the subject. He did tell me that his other customers will lap the Norton Flatting Plate with 220 grit Wet/Dry sandpaper. Hope this helps alittle.

FWIW, the colour of the lapping stone is quite similar to the 220 side of my 'other' norton. Since each norton grit has its unique colour, this could be an indication that its grit is indeed 220.

Redwoood

I found that high quality wet/dry 1000k sandpaper left my Norton 4k and 8k as well as my Japanese 12k feeling very smooth indeed!

X

This is something I've tried, and so far it's worked (but only works if you have the single grit stones). I use the Norton flattening stone on the 4000 until I get it perfectly flat. Then I use it on the 8K. Then, I rub the 8k on the 4k to smooth out the finish from the Nfs. Make sure you rinse both stones very well afterwards (I'll use a plastic scouring pad). Get wet, then get to honing. No problems so far.