Soaking Norton Hones

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I just changed the water out on my Nortons, and it occurred to me that I do a couple of things that others may or may not do, but I don't recall seeing posted.

I've recently been using anti-microbial hand soap in my soaking water. I used to use bleach to prevent the slimy stuff from developing in water. The problem with bleach is that if I used a little too much it would sometimes cause darkening of the blades I was honing. It was never dramatic darkening, and it would come off with metal polish, but I don't like polishing after the blades have been honed if I can help it.
A squirt of the anti-microbial soap in each tray also prevents the slime from developing and has the added benefit of helping to carry away swarf better than the bleach water does. I have not had a problem with the light oxidation that I would sometimes get if I got crazy with the bleach.

The other thing that I do is to keep each stone in a separate tray. I used to have a large pan for all of them, like in the Mastro Livi video (IIRC). If I had developed any auto-slurry on my 1k, putting it back in the pan would cause some of it to suspend in the water, and contaminate my finer stones. I suppose there is some risk of my 4K slurry contaminating the 8K, but I haven't had a problem with it. If I didn't have a combo stone, I would keep them separate as well.

Oh, and my Nortons have been in water pretty much continuously for over 4-1/2 years.
No problems yet.


Norton Stones Soaking in Soap water, with other assorted stones


This is an excerpt from a post by HNSB on September 6th, 2013: straightrazorpalace.com/honing/101663-how-i-soak-my-nortons-other-stuff-about-how-i-hone.html#post1206951