Thread: Norton 8000...has this happened to any of you guys?

Hey guys, just a question, the pics im going to attach are of my norton 8000 and the dots you will see are embedded in the stone, it has been lapped only twice and since then has caused my blades to jump , i thought it was particles in the water, till now....i have called Norton who are now going to deal with my problem and get back to me....

hopefully these jpegs will show up...and you can let me know...

Thanks guys, simon

ps btw i put a bit of pressure on the stone to get these to show but they felt like mountains and i do take exceptional care of them, the stone was also lapped 2 more times before this.

Well, it looks like you have a Dalmatian stone now It looks to me like mold. Lap the hone on sandpaper, or rub with pumace stone, and in the future, let the hone air-dry for 5-6 days before putting it back in the plastic container...

Nenad

Looks like mildew. I let mine air-dry until it stops feeling cool to the touch (3-4 days).

Put a bit of chlorine bleach (half a capful or so) into a bucket and fill it with water and soak the stone for a few hours and see if that kills the mold. Then let it dry and put it away.

If it was mildew it wouldn't cause your blade to jump. Maybe if it was really really bad they might be slightly raised but the blade would quickly remove it so its something else. Hard to say what. Maybe a defect in the hone, maybe from the lapping, maybe evil spirits.

Of course the acid test is soak it in a bleach solution and if it disappears then its mildew. Personally unless your a real heavy duty honer I wouldn't leave it in water all the time it only takes 15 minutes of soaking to work fine and once you remove it from the water even if you don't keep it soaking all the time it takes days to really dry out.

Hi,

could it be that from lapping some sandpaper particles remained that are stuck in the Norton and these particles cause the blade to jump ? The dark specks could still be mildew of some sort....

Just my 2 cents ,
-Axel-

Originally Posted by aschaab

Hi,

could it be that from lapping some sandpaper particles remained that are stuck in the Norton and these particles cause the blade to jump ? The dark specks could still be mildew of some sort....

Just my 2 cents ,
-Axel-

I have to agree with this assessment. I tried lapping my Norton with what I thought was good quality wet/dry paper, and when I honed on it it seemed like I was hitting grains of sand on the stone. Couldn't see or feel them on the stone, though. I lapped the stone some with a small ultrafine diamond plate, and that helped. I have since lapped it on the $30 Norton flattening stone and haven't had anymore problems. Incidentally, I tried using the nylon scrubbing pad under a flow of water as has been mentioned before by others, but that did me no good.
I will not go back to using sandpaper to lap my Norton with. I think Xman had a similar problem lapping his.

As to the dark spots? Could be mildew. I let my stone dry out for days before putting it back into the blue case.

well at least Im not on my own here, now i feel a little better. however i did call norton and send pictures as it was norton sandpaper i was using...the guy was very helpful and we will see what becomes of this. In the interim i guess I will have to try and fix the problem, superfly, it looks like your method may be the one I choose, however after picking out the pices and lapping again on fairly coarse paper it seemed to uncover more, i dunno maybe I should consider the whole lapping thing and look at the flattening stone to prevent this from happening again.

thanks guys for all the good stuff, simon

ps , is it worth using another stone as in a norton?

Simon,
Your description sounds like my first experience lapping my Norton, with just a couple of modifications. First, let me chime in with the rest by saying that the discoloration really does look like mold/mildew...proof would be whether a 5% bleach solution soak removes/fades them.

On to the imbedded sandpaper grit. My problem was on the 4K side of the hone and the imbedded grit really chewed up a razor...grrrrr. I tried scrubbing with scotchbright pads under running water...no good. Tried relapping with finer grit sandpaper...better, but still not clean. Finally got the hone restored by lapping with my 12K Chinese waterstone (this stone had been lapped at the same time that the Norton had originally and came out dead flat and smooth as silk). Now, because I have a coticule (and an escher on the way) I no longer use the Chinese 12K for honing). But I do regularly lapp my other hones with it...works great.

Just another data point,
Ed

Originally Posted by eagle

... I think Xman had a similar problem lapping his. ...

This looks and sounds exactly like the problem I had. The mold was quite rigid and persistent. You will need some bleach and you may need some sandpaper or something even more aggressive to get a smooth flat finish again.

X

Mildew won't make the razor jump, I have not seen this before in my 8000. I did have a 1000 that had a rock in the middle...I had to take the glass and paper to it ti get rid of the stone.