Oops, I flattened my new Norton Flattening Stone

[Dietrich Floeter]

I just received a nearly new Norton flattener from another Creeker and flattened a well worn 800 grit water stone. The stone seems flat at a glance but the Norton is in rough shape. The grooves are gone on the ends and I have a high ridge on one side. The Norton is trashed and I thought it was significantly harder than water stones and would last a long time. Did I do something wrong?

[David Weaver]

What brand of waterstone did you sharpen?

[Dietrich Floeter]

It is a Suehiro Chemical Stone, 800 grit

[David Weaver]

i don't know anything about that stone, but maybe something in it ate the binder of the norton stone.

The norton stone works well for clay matrix waterstone like kings (and I guess nortons).

[John Coloccia]

Those Norton flattening stones consistently get pretty bad reviews, which is partly why I never ever ever recommend them. Many aren't flat to begin with and they wear quickly, leaving with the new problem of "how do I flatten my flattening stone?". I don't think you got anything that was defective. As best I can tell, that's just how they come.

[Dietrich Floeter]

I learned my lesson and will find another way to flatten the stones. 25 years ago a friend said he tied them behind his kids tricycle and had him ride around the basement for awhile. No kids and no trike but plenty of cement.

Thanks for the input guys. Truly sharp edges have always been an issue with me and I am working on more consistent sharpening. Whoosh goes the blade.

[David Weaver]

I have one of them. Some guys like them, some don't. If you can flatten them and you keep after your stones often, everything will stay flat, but the stones must be something that is not hard like a ceramic stone.

When I had kings, I used one, I liked it OK, but I did have to flatten it initially. When I got a shapton moss, I tried to use it to surface that stone. Man that was like sticking your head out of the car window and pressing your teeth against a galvanized guardrail as the car goes down the road. Ceramic on ceramic is not a good idea.

I still need to unload mine. motivation I guess to list it so that after my next impulse buy, I can save up for a HAP40 kanna from stu.

[george wilson]

IF IF IF you have a big old sandstone hand cranked type grinding wheel,you can flatten even a black Arkansas pretty quickly by putting water on the sandstone wheel(laid flat),and rubbing the stone over it. Try to spread out your rubbing so as to not get the sandstone out of flat. I have done this several times while in Wmsbg..

[Orlando Gonzalez]

I have the Suehiro Rika 5K stone and I use the Atoma #400 from Stu with no problems.

Dave, IIRC Joel from TFWW said not to use it on Shaptons because the binder/abrasive was to tough for it. I wonder if that holds true for the Suehiro. My Rika feels like a Naniwa but cuts faster so maybe the binder/abrasive is also too tough for the Norton.

Yeah, I also can't wait for the kannas from Stu.

[geoff wood]

i bought a norton flattening stone and flattened it on a granite lapping plate. works absolutely fine for flatting my king waterstones and my norton 4000/8000 waterstone.

[David Weaver]

i use diamonds now, but one thing i remember is that i liked the norton stone much better than flattening the kings on wet and dry paper. i'd much rather flatten the norton stone once every couple of months than flatten the kings on wet or dry all the time.

[Niels Cosman]

Im big on diamonds too- i have the norton flattening stone that came with the 200/1000, 4000/8000 set, but i have never used it.
I dont like the idea of contaminating my sharpening area with super course grits. I'm probably hyper-sensitive about these things but it's something that is ingrained in me from years of polishing glass.

[Mike Henderson]

Flattening stones are almost useless. They eventually get out of flat, usually in a dome shape in my experience, and you then transfer that shape to your waterstones. Since you have to flatten the flattening stone before flattening your water stones, why not just use whatever you use to flatten your flattening stone to flatten your water stone.

Personally, I use a DMT coarse or extra coarse plate to flatten my water stones.

Mike

[anthony wall]

dont know if this is any help but when i used to buy sharpening stones i always bought two identical ,used one until it needed flattening then used the other the same until that also needed flattening then used them both face to face to flatten each other using water of course that method works great and you get two flat stones in the same time it takes to flatten one

[Mike Henderson]

dont know if this is any help but when i used to buy sharpening stones i always bought two identical ,used one until it needed flattening then used the other the same until that also needed flattening then used them both face to face to flatten each other using water of course that method works great and you get two flat stones in the same time it takes to flatten one

If you rub two stones together you cannot guarantee that you'll get two flat stones - you'll get two conforming stones, which may or may not be flat.

To get flat stones, you need at least three stones.

Mike