Norton stones

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

I use Norton 1000, 4000 and 8000 grit stones. I soak them in water before use. Sometimes I need to interupt my sharpening and do chores.
Is there a limit of how long my stones can be submerged in water ?

Why not just keep them in water when stored, then they are ready to use right away ?

[Paolo Trevisan]

I have the same stones, and have kept mine in water for the past 5 years and used sporadically.
no ill effects thus far.
i do change the water though when they don't get used often.
Another thing is to bring them inside for the winter to prevent them freezing.

cheers.

paolo

[Jim Koepke]

During the warm months my Norton stones may stay in the water all the time. During the winter I remove them from the water as it gets below freezing in my shop. That is when my oilstones earn their keep.

jtk

[Stew Hagerty]

During the warm months my Norton stones may stay in the water all the time. During the winter I remove them from the water as it gets below freezing in my shop. That is when my oilstones earn their keep.

jtk

I use oilstones year round.
I have six stones and yes, the combination even works on A2 Steel.
I have Course, Medium, & Fine India Stones from Norton.
And from Dan's Whetstones, I have Soft, Hard, & Black Arkansas Stones.
I rarely use the Course and Medium India Stones. They are primarily for repairing a drastic gouge in an iron. Quick honing means a few swipes on the Hard & Black Arkansas Stones. I also have a "Genuine Horse Butt" strop from T4WW with green compound on the rough side that, with a few swipes, gives me a (literally) razor sharp edge.

[Jim Belair]

I keep mine in water, though not totally submerged, all the time. The 8000 side of my 4000/8000 stone is usually above the water level, but that stone doesn't need soak time before use, AFAIK.

I use distilled water in my "stone pond" (tupperware) to avoid any mineral build up due to minor water evaporation.

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

Ok, I guess I will just leave them submerged then.

Another thing that I find strange is that when I read about ceramic stones on this site, it seems like they are praised for not needing to be flattened as in wearing very slowly. But when I read about the same stones on the sites that sells them, they write that they wear fast and need to be flattened offent. ??

[Patrick Chase]

Ok, I guess I will just leave them submerged then.

Another thing that I find strange is that when I read about ceramic stones on this site, it seems like they are praised for not needing to be flattened as in wearing very slowly. But when I read about the same stones on the sites that sells them, they write that they wear fast and need to be flattened offent. ??

Amazingly enough I don't own any Norton waterstones, but I gave a couple as a gift to somebody starting out with serious hand-tool woodworking, and received feedback that they dish pretty quickly. I think LV has it about right (I'm guessing that's the site you refer to?).

The generalization that ceramic stones are "harder" isn't really valid - the hardness can be varied by adjusting binder percentage or composition. The obvious counterexample is the Sigma S-II 1000, which is an extremely soft binderless ceramic stone (but extremely useful if you work with abrasion-resistant steels).

Also the term "ceramic" gets misused quite a bit IMO. Most people consider the Shaptons to be "ceramic", but they're actually resin-based and as such are basically blocks of molded plastic with abrasive filler (though nobody else seems to have been able to mimic them until fairly recently, so there's likely some cleverness in either the composition or processing of said plastic). That's what enables them to be used without soaking even in the low grits.

Fortunately enough I had also given my friend some sheet glass, some Mylar laminating sheets, and a half-pound or so of SiC grit :-)

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I don't know about the ceramic stones. I have a 1000/8000 Norton combination, and it holds up reasonably well. I have a Norton 220 that practically goes out of flat just sitting there. I don't expect it to last that long at the rate it is wearing, but it is probably still cheaper than sandpaper.

[David Eisenhauer]

Like Jim, I used to keep a set of older style Japanese waterstones ("King" brand) in water all the time until winter came along. I added a few drops of bleach to the covered water container the stones were soaking in to prevent mildewing.

[Trevor Walsh]

I have the combo set, 220/1000 and 4000/8000, the flattening stone isn't worth anything, I use 100 grit SiCarbide grit on a granite tile for flattening. The 220 goes out of flat very easily, I don't use it anymore, I've got a hand crank grinder for rough shaping, the 4000/8000 stay flat a while. When the 4000 is used up I'm going to get a norton 4000 single stone and one of those giant 3" thick 220 stones from someone, or perhaps a coarse diamond stone.