Thread: natural duel stone a llyn melynllyn and dragons tongue

I had the pleasure of honing on an LM this afternoon. JDTO brought his over and left it here so that I could play with it for a bit. Now, I'll admit, my test group as of this point is 1 solingen razor....so I'm limited to both volume and country of origin.

Here's what I did:

Bevel: Chosera 1k
Hone: 4/8 Norton
Vintage Coti: 30 on water
LM: 30 on water.
Strop: SRD Roo, 50 leather (no linen off the hones, ever).

Result: no pulling, no tugging. very smooth. It was an excellent edge.

In fact, the edge was so smooth that I immediately looked up AJ under my saved sellers list on the bay and grabbed the 55 mm LM block from him. When it arrives, I plan on splitting it depth-wise. One for oil, one for water. I won't use oil on JDTO's...

I'll continue to test his with slurry and with water on different blades until I get mine, at which point I'll start some oil testing.

I must also admit that I've been following this thread for a while....time to jump in.

Hope that's ok.

Originally Posted by Maxi

I had the pleasure of honing on an LM this afternoon. JDTO brought his over and left it here so that I could play with it for a bit. Now, I'll admit, my test group as of this point is 1 solingen razor....so I'm limited to both volume and country of origin.

Here's what I did:

Bevel: Chosera 1k
Hone: 4/8 Norton
Vintage Coti: 30 on water
LM: 30 on water.
Strop: SRD Roo, 50 leather (no linen off the hones, ever).

Result: no pulling, no tugging. very smooth. It was an excellent edge.

In fact, the edge was so smooth that I immediately looked up AJ under my saved sellers list on the bay and grabbed the 55 mm LM block from him. When it arrives, I plan on splitting it depth-wise. One for oil, one for water. I won't use oil on JDTO's...

I'll continue to test his with slurry and with water on different blades until I get mine, at which point I'll start some oil testing.

I must also admit that I've been following this thread for a while....time to jump in.

Hope that's ok.

Yeah thats great the more the merrier . its nice to hear about different people experience's with the LM .

Ok,

I honed three more today.

W&B 7/8, Chosera 1k, Norton 4/8. Then I did a medium slurry on the LM with 20 circles and 10 X's. I did three sets, and with each set I diluted. My final 30 x strokes were on water only.

A very very smooth edge. No complaints there.

5/8 Tuckmar Silversteel. Same progression, but left out the water strokes at the end to see what a slurried edge would feel like. Not to my liking. Will go back and run out on water only.

7/8 Wacker, touchup only. 50 X strokes, water only. Smooth as silk again.

This is all from JD's stone. I spoke to AJ through email today, and he's going to cut that massive brick for me. I'll have two hones in that package that I'll lap up.

I really like doing business with him. He's straightforward, and his communication is excellent. I bought a Charnley from him a while back and had the same excellent experience.

Anyway...back to the honing. I'm eager to continue testing, and will use oil when I get mine. I think I can eek out a bit more with some light sewing machine oil as a final 20 strokes.

Despite my previous gripe, I looked at the royal mail charges, and it does look like that's the charges, and the signed-for add-on is $7.50. It is what it is, the seller gets to pick it and we pay it, I guess.

I have been waiting 2 weeks for a stone, and having had the experience of our customs before, figured that it might be the stone sitting in NY as opposed to royal mail taking a while (I once waited 5 weeks for a package from japan to get through customs, despite the fact that it was in new york 3 days after the seller in japan shipped it from a very rural area - it arrived at my door unopened - who knows what they did with it for 4 weeks).

Anyway, the seller confirmed that royal mail got my big LM to New York in one day - 1/24, and our customs is playing with it or ignoring it since. My apologies for griping about all but the signed for fee (which I still don't like, but that's the way it goes).

So feeling less gripey about it, I ordered the last wide (non-purple) slate hone that he had that was listed as finer than the LM. It'll be interesting to see how it does vs. my finer japanese stones.

i just bought the dark green-ish the highest grit hone AJ sell's so i'll enjoy the wait too!

I just bought a LM from AJ yesterday, im not sure if the one I'm getting is older or something cuz its 230 MM LONG 33 MM WIDE 25MM MM DEEP, and in a wooden case, and looks a little darker than the big bricks he sells.

I offered him substantially less than he was asking for the stone and he accepted it so thats good. I only got the cased stone because it was longer and i wanted to mess around with that length.

I definitely took the plunge because of this thread, since I only have a 1k, and a BBW/coticule right now and wanted a finer finisher and i prefer naturals.

I've got that last dark green/grey black hone, and I've done some testing on it. I've been using it after the LM and my verdict is it's improving the LM's edge. So far I've tested it on hard steel razors (TI, swedish, le Grelot), doing some softer sheffields atm. I am happy I got it, and I'm pretty sure you guys will enjoy it as well.

Originally Posted by Maxi

Strop: SRD Roo, 50 leather (no linen off the hones, ever).

This is interesting. Why do you feel hitting the linen will ruin the edge?

Originally Posted by Maxi

Result: no pulling, no tugging. very smooth. It was an excellent edge.

In fact, the edge was so smooth that I immediately looked up AJ under my saved sellers list on the bay and grabbed the 55 mm LM block from him. When it arrives, I plan on splitting it depth-wise. One for oil, one for water. I won't use oil on JDTO's...

I'll continue to test his with slurry and with water on different blades until I get mine, at which point I'll start some oil testing.

I must also admit that I've been following this thread for a while....time to jump in.

Hope that's ok.

I got myself one LM too. Here's the one that I got.

I like those green spots on the surface, they looked cool on the auction picture.

I got it yesterday. I lapped it, the surface originally was rough, so a trip to DMT land was enough to leave it smooth.

Now, the bad news, I did 30 laps in light slurry, then about 40 with only water in one Filarmonica I had that began to shave a little under par. This morning I shaved with it and it was actually uncomfortable. It shaved indeed, no hair was left, but it was not kind to my skin.

What a hell am I doing wrong?

Stupid question: is the surface with green spots worst than the other side of the stone that doesn't have any spot at all? Should I try to lap and hone on the other side?

Customs in the US has been tying up my LM since the 24th of january. I sure hope it arrives soon. My dark hard slate shipped yesterday or the day before. I wish the people in NY would get it in gear!

Originally Posted by Leon

Now, the bad news, I did 30 laps in light slurry, then about 40 with only water in one Filarmonica I had that began to shave a little under par. This morning I shaved with it and it was actually uncomfortable. It shaved indeed, no hair was left, but it was not kind to my skin.

What a hell am I doing wrong?

I find a good stropping is needed off these hones. They sure do put a nice sharpness to the edge, so much so that they can feel harsh to the skin. I give my razor 75 on leather before the shave, it helps put a real nice and smooth edge on the razors I've tested it on so far.