Norton Wide Oilstones

I've been using these stones for a year now. Combined with a strop and good technique, they are quite easy to use. They seem to cut better than I remember my Dad's old oil stones did, but maybe I just know what I'm doing these days... In general, I've moved to them from my Japanese water stones - for the most part because I don't have running water in my shop, and these leave behind much less of a mess and are very good at honing with mimal mess and maintenance. When I do want to do more work, I head over to my diamond stones (also less mess and maintenance) and then finish on a hard-translucent. I own a hard translucent and a medium India. I'd say I use the hard translucent 10-1 over the India stone, mostly because of my diamond stones, which cut much better. I bought a diamond lapping plate especially for the translucent, and don't have to use it much - but for some applications it's nice to have a perfectly flat stone. In the end I'm giving it 4 stars because you need to strop, the India stone isn't very useful compared to diamond stones, and no stone is perfect. However I like the translucent stone a lot, it has a big working area, is easy to maintain, and keeps my tools away from the rusting effects of water.

I bought these to complement my diamond and water stones. My coarse diamond has lost its "bite" and waterstones are more delicate than I am always willing to tolerate. Tonight I flattened a large chisel and redid the bevel on the coarse and medium stones. Got the burr to a minimum then went to the strop. Was able to take clean end grain shavings off pine and douglas fir. I am very impresses with these stones. Not sure I will bother with the hard arkansas now.

These stones are excellent. Excellent quality at an excellent value. They are definitely superior to previous oilstones I have used, and the 3" width is incredibly useful for sharpening plane irons.