Norton flattening stone or float glass?

[Bob Jones 5443]

I’ve always used a nice thick 12 x 12 float glass with wet dry 220 to flatten my waterstones. What about this Norton flattening stone? It takes up less room and would save me on sand paper cost. How does it stack up?

[ken hatch]

I’ve always used a nice thick 12 x 12 float glass with wet dry 220 to flatten my waterstones. What about this Norton flattening stone? It takes up less room and would save me on sand paper cost. How does it stack up?

Bob,

Not well. There are better way to flatten water stones.

ken

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Word is it wears pretty fast and you have to flatten it plus your stones.

[justin sherriff]

I use a DMT diamond plate $50

[Robert Hazelwood]

A 200 to 400 grit diamond plate is the most convenient way, and comes in handy for other things. I'd like to have one or two of them no matter what kind of sharpening stones I normally use. The float glass and sandpaper works well, too, just takes more fiddling.

[Mike Brady]

Forget the Norton flattening stone...a waste of money. I have always used old diamond plates for flattening, but did invest a while back in the diamond plate that has a special coating for flattening other sharpeing media. Its called the Dia-Flat, I think. Its a beast and I use it sparingly.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Hmmm. I bought a "kit" of stones, and it came with the Norton. I've been using it and I WAS thinking it's doing it's job....... Maybe not..... This is like the third post about it. I think the only good thing is it is handy and technically "free" when I got my stones..... Maybe I need to flatten it. I do have a sanding board. That should do it.

[Frank Pratt]

I use a DMT plate that was expensive, over $100, but compared using a glass plate & grit is probably at least 10X as fast. And it grinds down a damaged edge (hate my concrete floor for that reason) surprisingly quickly, with no danger of burning. I've read reports of them lasting a very long time.

[Mike Henderson]

I use a DMT plate that was expensive, over $100, but compared using a glass plate & grit is probably at least 10X as fast. And it grinds down a damaged edge (hate my concrete floor for that reason) surprisingly quickly, with no danger of burning. I've read reports of them lasting a very long time.

This is exactly how I evolved in sharpening. I did buy that Norton flattening stone and it's junk. If you don't flatten it often it just "flattens" your working stones to a concave shape. I now use that flattening stone as a very coarse sharpening stone.

I use some DMT diamond plates that are at least 10 years old and they still work fine for flattening my working stones - and they stay flat. The Norton flattening stone is a waste of money - but it was a learning experience

Mike

[Günter VögelBerg]

I bought one of those norton flattening stones and it was anything but flat. I flatten using sandpaper on a granite machinist block.

[Andrew Hughes]

II have two different Shapton Diamond plates for keeping my Shapton stones flat. Most of the time I just need to refresh the surface and I use one of these ceramic pucks. It works really good. I don’t get all crazy with it just rub the surface evenly.
This is gonna be the new rage just wait it the utubers find out.

[Ross Manning]

I use a DMT diamond plate $50

This. Or even better, the Atoma 400g flattening plate.

[Derek Cohen]

yThe relevant, indeed most important element of a flattening medium is that it remains flat. It is little use if it needs to be flattened every now-and-then. Even sandpaper on glass will wear and become uneven. This is transferred to the meadium, unless changed iut very frequently. Consequently, the best flattening method is to use a diamond stone.

The fact is that diamonds also wear, as does the substrate that holds the diamonds.

Andrew, that ceramic stone looks interesting. My Spyderco ceramic stones have resisted wear very well. How large is the ceramic disk? Larger is better for a flattening stone. Did it need flattening when you got it (as the Spyderco stones do)? And what is the grit? My Shapton diamond flattening stone is 275.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Marinus Loewensteijn]

A couple of Veritas Steel Honing plates with diamond grits. One side one grit, flip over another grit. Two plates, four grits. Cheap grits to be found on the auction site, look for optical paste or lapidary paste. Some markings to know which side has what grit. Never flatten again. Diamond wears out, put on some more paste. Can use it with oil and for final honing use some translucent Arkansas (that can be flattened on the steel plate) and for the occasional coarse grinding I have an 30 year old Taiwanese Tormek like wet grinder with a 250mm natural stone wheel. No more water stones and high wear.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Well, the feedback on the Norton flattening stone is consistent with its price. I’ll take the advice and steer clear of it. Thanks to all.

I also have Woodcraft’s 6 x 18 x 2 granite surface plate that claims to be Grade A. I wish I could find 6 x 18 wet/dry 220 paper! I have seen 5-yard rolls of 6-inch 220 PSA paper, but I’m not sure how its aluminum oxide will work with the Norton waterstones compared to the silicon carbide in the wet-dry I use. In the meantime I’ll keep using the 12 x 12 x 1/2” float glass. Lots of honing to do tomorrow morning.