Norton Flattening Stone.....

[froglips]

After a few weeks with this stone, I'm sold.

It is a 220 Grit stone with grooves cut into it.

The idea is "simple", its used to flatten other water stones.

It does require flattening itself, which I've done both on wet/dry paper on glass and with a diamond stone. As long as you spread the wear on the stone evenly, I've not found it requires much re-flattening.

Out of the box, it is surprisingly not flat, so be ready for that. I wasn't, and wasted a bit of time finding out the hard way. :BangHead:

The other thing that I'm not clear on, is why Norton does not often mention nor include a "synthetic nagura stone" with it.

They do sell such a stone specifically for this flattening stone. :dontknow:

I happened to have a nagura, so I tried it out. Wow. Let me repeat, WOW!

The nagura made this stone work night and day faster and smoother.

I've flattened everything from a 220 up to an 8000 grit waterstone with very satisfactory results.

It works wet or dry, but I found it was a bit easier when wet.

Additionally, the stone puts some grooves/scratches in the waterstones. I found that helped break surface tension and led to a much quicker buildup of slurry for somewhat faster cutting.

But, what I believe to be its greatest "asset", is how well it works within the overall waterstone setup/workflow.

I keep it out on my stone bench such that I'm more "likely" to keep my stones flat. It also cleans up along with the other waterstones, which I find efficient.

I am not running to a glass/paper or going through the extra steps of caring for my diamond stone.

In the end, I think its also an excellent value. For ~$30, I get the same results I was getting using my $130 diamond stone (ouch).

So, yeah, I'm sold :thumbs_up

Jim

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Jim, thanks for the review. I'm still trying to refine my sharpening technique and skills. I've got a 600 diamond plate, and am thinking about going back to my 8,000 Japanese water stone. Information like this sure helps. :icon_thum

Bill

 

[Rob]

Jim, post a picture of your sharpening station, thinking about dedicating a section in my shop for sharpening.

 

[ehpoole]

Jim,

If you have not already, may I suggest taking a diamond stone to chamfer the flattening stone's edges. I've found in some of my marathon sharpening sessions that the 220 grit silicone carbide edges tend to cut into skin every bit as effectively as a waterstone! I also like to do the same for my 220 & 1000-grit waterstones, though they aren't nearly as sharp as the flattening stone when handling.

I've also found that it requires much more frequent flattening if you are working heavily with 220-grit waterstones versus finer grits. You would expect this, but I find the 220-grit waterstone to be much worse than the 1000+ grits for wear -- such as when flattening the backs of new chisels, etc.

Otherwise, I find the Norton flattening stone quite useful, but I find myself leaning towards possibly investing in a large diamond stone for flattening.

 

[froglips]

Excellent points! Broke the edges this morning.

I too noticed the 220 stone on the flattening stone wear. Good to know I wasn't "crazier than usual".

I did "observe empirically" using the nagura slowed down the excessive wear by the 220 issue.

I suspect I've just had an uninformed/poor experience with diamond stones on my handtools. Hard to say why. I've just not been happy with the results.

In Larry Williams video Sharpening Profiled Edge Tools he uses his diamond for flattening oil stones. He mentions in passing some drawbacks of diamonds in cutting metal. So, I feel a bit better

So, I'll just defer to Larry for my new opinion on the topic

Jim

 

[CaptnA]

Thanks for a good review of the product.
We used to have a Norton place here and some friends of mine worked there. I iss it! I used to get MAGNUM deals on sandpaper and such:gar-Cr all things must pass I suppose
I'm a bit surprised to hear it wasn't true 'out of the box'. I would have assumed.....
If you need some practice using it, feel free to take it on a day trip near Asheville... :eusa_danc
I bet we can find some things to try it out on

 

[froglips]

I'll put you on my route. Door2door Itinerant Waterstone Flattener. Now thats a career move I might consider!

Not knocking Norton on the out of the box flatness. No waterstones (ceramics and glass excluded) come flat. Just part of the deal.

I was surprised they didn't mention that in the tiny 1"x1" so called instructions that came with it......

Jim