NortonKnife Sharpener Whetstone Japanese Sharpening Stone with 4000/8000 Combination Grit, Wet Stone Sharpening Stone

Works. Wears quickly

I purchased this stone to hone my straight razors and keep them shave ready. I have had little experience honing my own razors, however, after spending a week searching forums and watching youtube videos that teach honing techniques, I quickly found that this stone is the one most often used by straight razor enthusiasts. Considering my limited knowledge of honing techniques that I studied from the forums, my razors came out super sharp with a smooth polished edge which gave me a comfortable shave. I owe this to the good advice I researched to some degree, but the lion's share of the credit goes to how well this stone works and how easy it is to use. When removed from the box, the box is designed to be used as a stand and since honing razors requires a gentle touch, its stability was more than adequate.When I first purchased this stone I didn't want to spend $73, but I thought in the long run If it works it will pay for itself. A professional honing usually costs between 25-40 dollars. Now that I see how well it works, I wish I would have purchased the Norton waterstone starter kit which sells on amazon for about $137. At first I thought that was too much money and would not get much use from it. Looking back that was a mistake. Now that I see how easy it was to learn honing (about 2 days of practice before reaching good results) I plan to maintain all my own razors from now on and my results will get even better with practice. The first hard lesson was that I had to use the 1000/4000 grit stone to both set the bevel and polish the edge followed by micro abrasives and stropping. Setting the bevel was slow because the 4000Grit side was too smooth to really bite into the blade. I could have done this in half the time with the kit because it comes with an additional courser 220/1000 grit stone which would be more effective to set the bevel. Then the 4000/8000 stone would be used for honing and polishing saving time and wear and tear on the stone. In addition after honing 4 razors I found that I the 4000 grit side of my stone was starting to curve in the middle from all the use. Most likely because I honed an new out of the box razor to shave ready and this took a lot of strokes putting wear on the stone. The kit comes with a lapping stone to "flatten" your stone should this occur. Since I did not have one I used lapping film on a flat surface and got my stone back to normal, but it would have been easier had I not been so cheap and bought the full set from the get go. Hind sight is 20/20.So if you do a lot of honing, consider getting the full kit its definitely worth the price. However, if you are on a budget or just thrifty you can certainly get the job done with one stone. Just plan on spending a lot more time, using a lot more elbow grease and putting more wear and tear on the stone. Either way I am sure you'll be getting some super sharp edges on your Knives, Razors, chisels, or what ever other tools you choose to hone. We use Norton abrasives at work all the time and they never disappoint and I would put this product right up there with the best.

I recently took up the art of sharpening and using straight razors. Most are antiques that are being restored to their original and usable condition, some are new that need some freshening up before they are able to be used.Per Lynn Abrams, the straight razor honing master, these Norton 4k/8k stones are the standard, reasonably priced whetstones by which other synthetic stones are measured.That being said, as mentioned by several others about almost all whetstones, THEY ARE NOT READY TO USE FOR SHARPENING OUT OF THE BOX. I can not stress this enough; the surfaces of both the 4k and 8k sides are not ready from the factory to hone and sharpen straight razors. If you try to use them right out of the box they will not work as they are intended. These stones come from the factory with a course outer layer which needs to be taken off to get to the true 4000 and 8000 grit stone. To do this both stones must be lapped with a lapping stone, bringing the surfaces perfectly flat and removing this outer layer.Norton makes a synthetic lapping stone themselves, but I have read it is not nearly as reliable as a steel/diamond stone. The stone that many straight razor sharpeners use for lapping is a DMT Dia-Sharp stone, Course, about 325 grit (model D8C, available on Amazon here: DMT D8C 8-Inch Dia-Sharp Continuous Diamond Coarse ), along with a necessary stone holder for both the Norton and the DMT (I use the Steelex D1091 holder: Steelex D1091 Sharpening Stone Holder).I initially lapped both sides of this Norton using the "pencil grid" method, whereby you lightly draw a grid on the surface of the stone with a pencil, which helps track the progress of flattening and resurfacing the stone. Once resurfaced this way, I use the DMT lapping stone to lightly clean up the surface EVERY TIME I use these Nortons; all it takes is a few seconds of figure-8 strokes of the DMT and the stone is clean, flat, and ready to cut. You'll find that your stones aren't dishing out or getting crud in them at all if you follow this method. A quick tip; leave the slurry created from lapping the Norton on the stone, it helps sharpen and polish the edges of whatever you are working on. Alternatively, you can purchase a small Nagura stone to help create a slurry as well.Of course, remember to always submerge your whetstones in water for about 15 minutes before using them, and keep them wet while lapping and honing/polishing. If some basic care is taken, these Norton stones should last decades, well worth the purchase price!

The stone arrived slightly chipped. Very unfortunate, but they quickly sent me another Norton 4,000 /8000 grit Stone. It was well packaged, yet still chipped on the top inside corner and I regret having to have it replaced, but they took care of it. These stones are made in the US and are the best in my own humble opinion, a great finisher for that real good sharp edge you're looking for