Thread: Honing on the Norton

Bruno,

Do you have any automotive stores nearby? Wet-dry sandpaper is used in refinishing cars, so they tend to stock it.

Wet-dry paper is usually black or gray, depending on the grit. Brown or red is regular dry sandpaper, and the glue will dissolve in water and release the grit... Not good.

Josh

Amazon.com no shortage of the type of automotive wet/dry sandpaper there, many sizes, many grits. Not to mention the Norton flattening stone. Although not sure if that should be used on anything other than Norton waterstones. Someone else might be able to chime in about that.

I managed to find a store that carries it. Funny enough, it is one of those stores I usually avoid because they carry either cheap junk or overpriced good stuff.

I bought a couple of pieces of 240 grit, 400 grit and 600 grit waterproof 3M sandpaper. it is indeed dark grey. the non waterproof stuff is either red or green.
It is also at least thrice as expensive.

If I have some time tonight I'll re-lap the norton, starting on 240 to get rid of the crud that is now embedded in my 4K side,

Wow.

What a difference. The 240 grit only took a minute to remove the stain and the crud. It feels very different now. After lapping on the 600 grit it is now flat.

I also lapped my belgian since I was at it, and it wasn't completely flat either. all thanks to that crappy paper.

I also rounded the stone edges to prevent the razor edge from scraping against the stone.

Btw, I also discovered that a lapping plate might be a good future investment. for razor use only it isn't necessary, but I had to lap the 1K side for 20 minutes on the 240 grit side after I had used it for honing a paper knife and removing a lot of metal

I will try to hone my full hollow again and see what happens.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think that it made a world of differece.

See, we're not crazy. We're your friends.

Glad it worked out for you. The Norton is a great stone, and I think you'll come to love it.

Josh

One more thing - you should give the surface of your stones a good scrub with an abrasive pad (I use scotcbrite or a dishwashing sponge with the scratchy plastic stuff on the back). Don't use steelwool or a metal scrubber, as these could scratch the stone.

This will help make sure that none of the grit from the sandpaper is stuck in the stone - which could scratch your edge.

Good luck.