Norton Fine India Stone (Ed?)

J

John Frankl

Joined
Oct 16, 2001
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I, on the advice of Ed Fowler, Wayne Goddard, Jerry Fisk, Ed Caffrey, and others have begun to sharpen on a Norton Fine India stone. For those of you with experience with this stone, what do you use for lubricant(kerosene, Norton oil, mineral oil, WD40,nothing, etc.)? Does it need to be initially soaked in oil or just lubricated for each use? What do you follow it up with (hard Arkansas, fine diamond, leather strop, nothing, etc.)? Any other advice/comments are also welcome.

Thanks in advance,

John
 
I buy my kerosene by the gallon, one will last years. No need to soak the stone, but wet it down before putting a blade on it and be sure to wipe it clean with a paper towel every time. The stuff for heaters is cheap enough and I like the smell.
Don't leave the soaked towels laying around as fire hazzards.
 
Thanks Ed. I also noticed on your video that you didn't follow it up with anything. Do you ever go to a finer stone or strop? If not, how to you remove the burr?

Thanks,

John
 
John,

If a knife is properly honed on a fine India stone there is no wire edge left to worry about. Here is the procedure that Ed and I use: First stroke the blade on the stone at your favorite angle. Do this an equal number of time on both sides of the blade. As you approach the point that you feel the knife should be sharp check the side opposite of the one you just pulled across the stone for the wire edge that WILL be there. Ed and I use the tips of our fingers and pull the blade across them in a stropping motion. As you feel the wire edge begin to grow, check it after every pass on the stone. After several strokes of the wire edge growing you will feel that it suddenly breaks off and leaves a very fine wire edge behind. If you continue stroking the edge of the knife the wire edge will grow and break off again. After you feel that the wire edge has broken off, it's time to increase the angle of the blade to the stone. Using light pressure pull the blade gently across the stone. feel for the wire edge. repeat for the other side. For me the wire edge disappears after two to four passes. At this point the knife has a very keen working edge on it that needs no further stropping or honing. This edge will cut very aggressively and stay sharp for a long time. When the edge does roll over it takes only a feww passes on a steel or crock stick to stand the teeth of the edge up and put them back in service. This method of sharpening works very well for me and is the way that I sharpen all of my knives. If there are any questioons I'll try to answer them. I hope that the above is clear enough to follow.

Bill
 
Thank you. That is pretty clear. Just a couple more questions. Approximately how much do you increase the angle for the final 2-4 passes (i.e., from 15 to 20 degrees or from 15 to 40 degrees or ???). Also, when you say "pull" the blade across the stone, does that mean you are actually changing the direction in which you sharpen (like most people do when they strop on leather) or is it just a figure of speech? Thanks.

John
 
John,

pull, in using the stone is just a figure of speech. Pull, when checking fo a wire edge with your finger tips means to reverse direction like you were stropping.
I usually increase the angle in increments, i.e. hone at 15 then finish at 17, 20, 25. by doing this you keep the convex all the way to the cutting edge.
 
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