Thread: Slurry Dulling

Jnats, schmaynats. The term "slurry dulling" was coined specifically in relation to honing on a coticule. Coticule slurry does not break down; Japanese natural slurry (as far as I understand) does. So if there would be slurry dulling going on when using a slurry that breaks down into a finer slurry, the slurry would polish finer and finer as well as having a reduced slurry dulling effect as it breaks down, making the slurry dulling a non-issue.

Originally Posted by jnats

I think experts don't like to say- "sometimes I forget or struggle to get my timing of dilution just right and take the edge back a bit and wind up having to remove more steel and hone longer than if I had done it right the first time." and it's easier to remain infallible and blameless by inventing a mystical scapegoat term "Slurry dulling" I agree that it is a lot like religion.

Except that it's not. The experts that came up with the term? Over on coticule.be, a lot of people I would consider more or less advanced users of/experts on honing with a coticule (who use the term "slurry dulling") mentioned their many (old and new) mistakes, problems and issues. They tended to blame their lack of skills on and understanding of the tool they were using, rather than the tool itself. They were quite a humble bunch in that, and never presented themselves as infallible.

If you want to see the effect of slurry dulling:

Take a coticule, raise a slurry, get the bevel set on a known well-performing razor and test for sharpness (as in: make sure the bevel is definitely properly set). Keep honing on the same slurry while adding one drop of water (to prevent the slurry from drying out) every thirty or so back-and-forth strokes for five/ten/fifty thousand minutes and test for sharpness again.

My bet is that you will see no significant increase in sharpness. That is slurry dulling. That is why you dilute. On slurry, there is a plateau when an edge will not get sharper without diluting.