Thread: Lather up a Norton

This has possibly been asked many times before but searching on the words "Lather" and "Norton" produced a lot of results as you can imagine. So I'll just ask away.

I received one of Tilly's lithide barber hones the other day and after lapping it tried to hone one of my razors. All went well and I decided to use lather instead of water as I have heard of many members doing this. It worked really well and I was wondering if you can do the same with a Norton 4000/8000?

Not more than a few times. This trick is for non-porous hones. On the porous norton, he lather penetrates the stone and won't rinse out very well, and winds up clogging the stone.

oow glad I asked. I might give that a miss then eh?

Good question on the lathering. I would have assumed to only use water just so I would not wreck the stone. The usual time to leave it in is about 15 minutes to soak before use correct?

Yeah, I've heard 10-15 minutes for the 4000 side and just a splash on the 8000 is needed. I submerse the whole thing anyway.

The lather on the hone seemed to make it almost float which made it easier to apply lighter pressure.

Originally Posted by drsch3

[...] All went well and I decided to use lather instead of water as I have heard of many members doing this. It worked really well and I was wondering if you can do the same with a Norton 4000/8000?

Using a fingernail brush and soap and water, I always thoroughly clean my hones after I use them.

I don't use lather, but I often put a little dish soap into a cup and apply the mixture to the surface of the hone when I need to wet my Norton 4k/8k stone. I find doing this makes cleaning the stone much easier. This is my main reason for using soap.

In addition, although I have no way of testing the idea, I think it makes the hone a little more viscous thereby slowing down the aggressivness of the hone. It's a small difference though.

Totton in Toronto