Thread: Equality: King and Norton

Hello,

Heres my question for those who have experince, does the king 1000k and 4000k actually equal the norton 4000k and 8000k respectively? I understand they may not be "equal" but do they perform/feel the same? It's been said that they both use different grit ratings...

trying to search with these keywords in this forum and you get a billion listings!

I've never used the king 4k but I do have a king 1k I use for setting bevels and a norton 4/8k. My opinion is that the king 1k is exactly what it says it is. No comparison to the 4k norton.

All hones are equal, but some hones are more equal than others.

I can't speak for the Nortons as I don't have them but I do have a King 1k, 4k, & 6k. That progression works well for me then I hit my PHIG and I get a good shave.
Maybe if anyone has a fancy usb microscope and either the King or Norton (or both) stones they could take a photo of the edge off of the respective stones.

Originally Posted by bharner

I can't speak for the Nortons as I don't have them but I do have a King 1k, 4k, & 6k. That progression works well for me then I hit my PHIG and I get a good shave.
Maybe if anyone has a fancy usb microscope and either the King or Norton (or both) stones they could take a photo of the edge off of the respective stones.

I dont have a fancy microscope but I do have one of the cheap handhelds that I use and the difference between the king 1k and the norton 4k is definately there

The Kings and Nortons are approximately the same grit. Where the perceived difference is is in the feel of the stones. The Kings are soft and slower while the Nortons are harder and a bit quicker. I may be wrong on this, but I thought I read somewhere, either here or on a woodworking site, that the Kings were designed to mimic natural stones of the appropriate grit size in both speed and feel while the Nortons were just made as synthetic waterstones.

Originally Posted by Catrentshaving

I dont have a fancy microscope but I do have one of the cheap handhelds that I use and the difference between the king 1k and the norton 4k is definately there

And here I was thinking about a 4k King and a 4K Norton. :P

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

All hones are equal, but some hones are more equal than others.

Are you saying that norton is king?

+1 with Theseus,
I have both, have honed on both, and there are differences in how they feel, but they are in the same cutting ranges 1-1, 4-4, 8-8, etc: they just feel different...

I have said this so many times it hurts me to type it.

Don't get hung up on the "Grit Numbers" the only thing for certain is that a Norton 1k is lower than a Norton 4k and that is lower than a Norton 8k
The same goes for the Kings, Naniwas and Shaptons.. But when you start comparing different brands those numbers tend to blur in fact often even numbers between series of stone ie: Naniwa SS vs Naniwa Chosera or Shapton GS vs Shapton Pro...

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Are you saying that norton is king?