Monday, November 30, 2020

New Norton Washita Stone

 Sharpening Supply is selling new Norton Washita stones. The price is right, IIRC less than $40 USD, so I decided to give one a go for no other reason than curiosity. I have no need for more stones but I'm a stone sucker. 

Here is a photo of some of my Washita stones:


The new Norton stone is bottom right. To the bottom left is a Norton "Lilly White". The middle stone is a Pike "Lilly White" and the top stone was advertised as a Washita, my guess one of the courser stones.

I had time to put metal to stone tonight. When you reach a certain age sleep isn't easy and sharpening is one of the few thing you can do and not wake the house. As expected from just feeling the stone surface the stone is very fast, my guess somewhere between a coarse India and a med India, It will be interesting to see where it settles in after use. My guess it will be close to a med India.

Anyway it could be a nice stone to add to your kit.

ken

10 comments:

  1. Steve D8:03 AM

    I ordered one too but still waiting on delivery. They are $30. Like you, I didn't need it but...

    My Indias are oil soaked from the factory and I was thinking I could use this one with the soapy water mix I have been trying to use on oilstones.

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  2. Steve,

    It is listed as use either, I went ahead with oil but I may order another to go with my JNATs if it stays reasonably fast.

    ken

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  3. This is something I still have to try out!
    Thank you for your valuable infos on stones.

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    1. Lionel,

      Thanks, There is something addicting about sharpening stones. Like most of our woodworking tools a small kit is all that is needed and most of the time is better. Whatever I have a jones for chisels and stones. So much so I just ordered another Norton Washita to use with my JNATs so I do not have to be careful wiping oil off before going to the water stones.

      My justification, as weak as it is, is I do not have a natural course water stone and have been using India stones for that job.

      ken

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  4. Steve D5:22 AM

    Is yours flat? I saw a post on one of the forums that someone had a dished one.

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    1. Steve,

      It is flat enough for my use. I have not got the feeler gauges out to check it to the .0001.

      I know heresy but maybe because I use mostly natural stones I do not worry about their being "flat". I pay attention to feel and scratch pattern and if a place feels low I stay away from it for awhile or if a JNAT I spend a little more time with the nagura on that area.

      Having said that if I got a really warped stone (visually warped) I'd send it back. At 1/2" there isn't a lot of stone to play with, enough for several lifetimes if used correctly but not to do a lot of flatting.

      ken

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    2. Steve D11:51 AM

      Just got mine. Ordered two.

      Have to say I'm pretty disappointed in Norton as well as SharpeningSupplies.

      Norton because both stones are curved, making them useless for flattening the back of anything. I have a black stone from Dan's and it's super flat. I would expect Norton to have the resources to match Dan in stone production.

      SharpeningSupplies because I also ordered a $40 "translucent" slip which is clearly not a translucent stone. I'm pretty pissed right now.

      I just looked at Norton's own catalog and they do list the part number on the slip as translucent, no quotation marks. They no longer appear to differentiate between translucent and plain hard ark stones, translucent product commanding higher prices.

      Bums. Looks like I have a couple of knife only stones, maybe a lawnmower sharpener. Some day I'll tell you what a lawnmower is ;()

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    3. Steve,

      Bummer, send 'em back. BTW, I'll check mine out today but I expect it is with in tolerance.

      ken

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    4. Steve,

      Just put a straight edge to mine and while at it checked my other stones. The new Norton does have a slight hump with the logo side up, I can just get a .019 feeler gauge under the far end. I can see no light on the opposite side. As you know a hump is a bitch to get out so I may have a one sided stone, not a problem I just have to be aware.

      While I was at it I checked my other Washita and Ark stones, most have been in use for years and all dead nuts flat.

      Thanks for the heads up,

      ken

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  5. Steve D6:23 AM

    Both Nortons had defects in one face but I don't recall if it's the concave or convex sides, or both.

    I went to the basement/hoarder refuge to recalibrate my memory of translucent. There was a brown wrapped object on my shelf that I undid and it was the same slipstone ordered from Sharpening Supplies in 2016. Same PN and description but it's clearly translucent (no pun intended).

    Then I was poking around Dan's website and he had 2 Washita's for the same price as the Nortons but these were thick. Grabbed both. Came with wooden boxes too. I always held Norton in high esteem but after this I am suspicious of their quality.

    I'm sending back the Norton Washitas and will probably keep the slip to use as a hard ark.

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