Thread: The Art of slurry...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I have noticed a ton of questions recently on Slurries and various finishers, and I have been meaning to write this for quite awile...
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Simply put I have used slurries on every stone I have except two types, Barber's Hones and Arkansas stones...
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Good post....

I might add that a light smear of white toothpaste (not green or blue gel)
on a barber hone works nicely.

A very light touch of very fine carborundum powder on
an Arkansas can wake an Arkie up. The only place
I ever found to get the "fine enough" stuff was from
a telescope grinding kit and is hard to find in small
quantities today (I ground my mirror in the early '60s
and the extra lasted a long time).

I played around with using slurry on my naniwa SS 8k last night. This was a blade that was close, but not quite there.

I built a slurry, diluted to water, then did about 15 strokes water only. I know only the edge matters, but the bevel looked nice and pretty under the scope and the shave was great.

Glen I sure agree with the smooth edge you get with a vintage Thuringian or Escher working from medium slurry down to water only. It's the best edge I've ever experienced!

Slurry is great stuff!
I always use slurry on my 1k, then do a few laps with no slurry before I continue on with the progression.
On my finisher always slurry diluted to water.

I wish I could click "THANK" for this whole thread. I have had a razor that "should" have honed up perfectly. A stray from a 7 Day set, a Solingen "Feinster Silberstahl" but no other makers mark on it. I call it "Sunday."

It was the first razor I ever bought on eBay. It was tarnished, some rust, some crud…I tried many times to hone this razor but it just wouldn't shave. So I decided to use it just for learning restoration--cleaning, sanding, that stuff. Popped it out of the scales which accidentally survived the operation. After sanding, wiping, Q-tips, still nasty looking....I put the blade in my vibratory tumbler for a few days. It came out gleaming! I then put it back in its original scales, dull as a butter knife, having defeated my ever effort to hone it.

I read this thread, and decided to try two things: a layer of tape on the spine, and slurry. I put a single strip of tape on the spine, pulled out the Norton 1K and worked up a good slurry on the surface and proceeded to use circling alternating with X strokes and BEHOLD...an edge began to appear!

Staying with the tape, I worked up the sequence of 4K, 8K, then Naniwa 12K, each stone starting with a thick slurry and letting it thin down to clear water. Finally, a gave it a light stropping on fabric sprayed with green CrOx, then plain linen, then Premium III leather.

And....it shaves! Nice and smooth, as good as any razor in my rotation!

Thanks for showing me how to add this outstanding technique to my honing!

Below is a before and after pic:

That's one thing about honing it's a never ending learning process which is one reason it's so much fun:-)

I thought I was the only one on the forum that used Slurry on his norton 4/8k combination hone! lol

Slurry is great, on every single hone I have used I have used Slurry. Slurry even smells good...

Heck no Nick I use slurry on every stone I have:-) It works!

Great minds? Lol!

LOL----There ya go:-)