Thread: The Famous/Infamous Norton 4/8 "JaNorton 2012"

Having a new hone and new(to me) razor in house I really couldn't wait, so I had to cheat and do one go at the Norton before 2012...
The razor is a scruffy looking Gotta 120, 13/16 Sheffield steel.

My Norton took some time to lap, a coarser DMT would be nice to have, but it turned out fine with some work .
I pretty much followed the way Glen shows in his Norton video, only using the "nagura" that came with my Chosera 1k for making a slurry for the bevel set. I killed the edge on the scuttle and went to work.

After finishing up, (and surprised how little time spent on honing from bevel to finish) it was off to the strops, 80 laps on Scrupleworks linen, the Scruple linen got some Dovo white on it, but being non-abrasive I figure it should be ok.
Then 50 laps on Kanayama suede, then 100 on the Cordovan.

Looking at the edge through my 100x scope it looked downright scary compared to the 30k Shapton edges Visible scratches, not the mirror shine I'm spoiled with.

So I was a bit apprehensive putting this blade against my face for sure!

But the shave went fine, thank heavens. Not as smooth as a Shapton 30k edge further polished by CrOx and cerium obviously, but not bad at all actually!
My face feels fine and pretty much BBS after 2 passes, no irritation.


By blix72 at 2011-12-30

Originally Posted by Blix

Having a new hone and new(to me) razor in house I really couldn't wait, so I had to cheat and do one go at the Norton before 2012...
The razor is a scruffy looking Gotta 120, 13/16 Sheffield steel.

My Norton took some time to lap, a coarser DMT would be nice to have, but it turned out fine with some work .
I pretty much followed the way Glen shows in his Norton video, only using the "nagura" that came with my Chosera 1k for making a slurry for the bevel set. I killed the edge on the scuttle and went to work.

After finishing up, (and surprised how little time spent on honing from bevel to finish) it was off to the strops, 80 laps on Scrupleworks linen, the Scruple linen got some Dovo white on it, but being non-abrasive I figure it should be ok.
Then 50 laps on Kanayama suede, then 100 on the Cordovan.

Looking at the edge through my 100x scope it looked downright scary compared to the 30k Shapton edges Visible scratches, not the mirror shine I'm spoiled with.

So I was a bit apprehensive putting this blade against my face for sure!

But the shave went fine, thank heavens. Not as smooth as a Shapton 30k edge further polished by CrOx and cerium obviously, but not bad at all actually!
My face feels fine and pretty much BBS after 2 passes, no irritation.


By blix72 at 2011-12-30

Hone snob!

After these edges, you will be able to appreciate your high grit finishers more

So, I've done both my razors for the JaNorton event

My honing methods were pretty much the same for both of them, as described further down.

Both razors were shave ready before starting this, and I did not kill the edge on either.
That is, not more than what the 4K Norton would do to a shave ready edge.

The Puma had an edge from a 1-5-10K Chosera progression, before it was finished on a Nakayama Maruichi Asagi.
The Sub Cero was done with the same 1-5-10K progression, then followed by a 13K and a 20K synthetic.

Well then, here's what I did:

First I started off with about 30 X-strokes with quite a bit of pressure.
(At this stage I use a 2-hand grip, all subsequent steps was done with a one-hand grip.)
That step left a fair amount of swarf on the stone.
In hindsight, I'm sure that was doing too much really, but at the very least it really removed any trace of the original honing, except for the bevel set.

I cleaned the stone after that and did 20 passes with light pressure on them.
Again, some metal was showing up on the stone.
I finished off on the 4K side with about 10 passes using the lightest possible pressure, and by that time both the visual feedback and the feel of the razor on the stone told me that I was pretty much done at that level.

Then on to the 8K.
I was a bit surprised to see, and feel, how little it took to get the 4K scratches out of the blades on the Norton 8K.
I did about 12-15 light pressure passes, then did 10-12 without any pressure at all.
After that I really didn't feel I could squeeze anything else out of the stone.

I used tape on both razors.
I replaced it once, after the 4K level was done.

I'm sure I will learn more from this stone as the month progresses, but for now I'm quite happy with how the edge feels on the Thumb Pad test(TPT), and when trying to shave arm hair "above ground"

After honing I gave them both a good stropping on linen and leather.
Just my average 40/60 on linen and leather for now, I'll experiment more with various regimens to see what can be improved on the edge with just a good stropping

I'll give the Puma a first run on the new year's first day, with a report on how it went

I'm certain I'll be trying to improve the edge from this combo stone throughout January, and I'll try to set up a video-shoot for one of the honing sessions.

Originally Posted by jeness

Hone snob!

After these edges, you will be able to appreciate your high grit finishers more

Hehe, a true hone snob wouldn't even consider buying a Norton would he?



Birnando, trying various stropping regimens is indeed on the plan too.

And I love the incredibly smooth feel of the 8k, I could hone on it for days!

Originally Posted by Blix

Hehe, a true hone snob wouldn't even consider buying a Norton would he? :
[snip]
And I love the incredibly smooth feel of the 8k, I could hone on it for days!

Some guys with experience with more different hones than I'll ever have settle in with the Norton 4/8 as a major part of their progression. The idea that a hone snob wouldn't buy one is inaccurate, unless we're talking about snobbery based in ignorance...

Originally Posted by richmondesi

Some guys with experience with more different hones than I'll ever have settle in with the Norton 4/8 as a major part of their progression. The idea that a hone snob wouldn't buy one is inaccurate, unless we're talking about snobbery based in ignorance...

You missed my point (joke)
Snobbery is always based on ignorance...

Originally Posted by Blix

You missed my point (joke)
Snobbery is always based on ignorance...

I got your point, but I didn't find it funny. And, snobbery isn't always based in inorance. It wouldn't take me long to demonstrate that it if I cared enough to do so. Suffice it to say there are a lot of types of people that I won't associate with under any circumstances, products that I absolutely refuse to use, etc; in short, I'm a snob in several ways - not related to social status. Ignorance has nothing to do with that.

Originally Posted by richmondesi

I got your point, but I didn't find it funny. And, snobbery isn't always based in inorance. It wouldn't take me long to demonstrate that it if I cared enough to do so. Suffice it to say there are a lot of types of people that I won't associate with under any circumstances, products that I absolutely refuse to use, etc; in short, I'm a snob in several ways - not related to social status. Ignorance has nothing to do with that.

I guess we have a different view on snobbery then...

Originally Posted by Blix

Hehe, a true hone snob wouldn't even consider buying a Norton would he?



Birnando, trying various stropping regimens is indeed on the plan too.

And I love the incredibly smooth feel of the 8k, I could hone on it for days!

Hehehe I just did a Vid, will have it up soon, and I do believe that the statement I used was "Using a finishing strop is not against the rules just pasted ones are"
I went SRD Premium 1 50/90 and about 15-20 laps on an old Jimbo Roooooo Strop