Norton axe hone question

[Mikeinri]

I am a collector of sharpening stones and own a couple of norton embossed axe bones. I wonder why they are so highly regarded. I do like the stone but with so many other alternatives for a fraction of the cost wonder why so much money is spent on that one stone.

 

[Square_peg]

I assume you're talking about a razor hone. Competitive choppers will often finish their axes with one. They're not rated according to the grit system we're used to using but if they were they would often be in the 8000 to 12,000 grit range. They do put a scary edge on a tool that has been sharpened well. I will often give an axe a couple passes with a razor hone after I've finished with my hard black Arkansas stone. If I've done it right the hairs will fly off my arm and the axe penetrates with notable ease.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

If they were rated according to grit they'd be more like 600 at most, actually. They work by means of their structure rather than their grit size. The surface is polished such that the abrasive grains only barely peak above the surface of the binder, much like setting a plane iron for a very thin cut. They're an excellent example of how grit rating alone isn't an accurate measure of honing performance.

 

[Square_peg]

If they were rated according to grit they'd be more like 600 at most, actually.

We must be talking about different things. Razor hones range from 8k to 30k or even higher.

http://straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Beginner's_Guide_to_Honing

 

[Steve Tall]

This may be what the OP is referring to:

 

[markv]

like tile smooth?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

We must be talking about different things. Razor hones range from 8k to 30k or even higher.

http://straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Beginner's_Guide_to_Honing

Oh--you're thinking the modern Norton water stones. Those use JIS grit rating, for starters. It's more accurate to use micron particle size ratings in all reality. But I was referring to vintage razor hones, which were manufactured back before techniques had been discovered for producing sub-micron abrasives. JIS 30,000 has a an average micron size of 0.5µ compared to SAE 600 which is 18µ, but in manufactured razor hones was able to produce a much finer finish than one would get from abrasive papers of equal micron because of their structure.

 

[Square_peg]

I'm talking about vintage razor hones. They sharpen as a stone of 8000 to 12,000 grit would. I have a Keen Kutter and a Frank Swaty. The KK is dual grit equivalent to about 8K and 12K. The Swaty is equivalent to about 10K.

Here's a chart.

http://straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Hones_-_comparison_table

"The grit of a barber hone is irrelevant, because the cutting by the hone is also so dramatically affected by the density of the hone and also the binder used to hold the grit. For this reason, barber's hones never declare a grit rating."

So I'm talking about how they cut and what grit a normal stone would be to cut like a razor hone.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Yeah--that's exactly the thing. Those aren't really grit ratings, so much as descriptive projections based on grit ratings. That's why I was saying that they're actually 600 grit stones in reality, because under SAE standards, that's what the size of their abrasive grains would place them as. Barber hones are so fine on account of their structure rather than their grit, which is what I was getting at. If you were to compare a 180 grit stone to a 180 grit sandpaper, for instance, the two would give totally different results, with the sandpaper being much coarser in its resulting finish due to much greater grit protrusion. :thumbup: