Thread: Welsh Slates

I've been doing a bit of honing with a couple of Welsh slates that I got from AJ on eBay, and I'm wondering if anyone can share any tips or experience.

I took a blade that had been honed on a 3k Naniwa (in my honing journal I wrote about using lather on it and getting an edge I could quite comfortably shave with), and went to the Dragon's Tongue. I lightly lapped the DT with a DMT 325, and then started with a slurry and progressively diluted it until I got to plain water.

It took a couple of hundred laps before it had removed the 3k scratches and I was happy it was undercutting properly and giving me the "sticking to the stone feel" - I know it's a hard stone, but I wasn't expecting that much.

The next was the Llyn Melynllyn purple slate, and I used slurry progressively diluted again. It didn't take quite as many laps this time, but still quite a lot, and I ended up pretty confident I'd done the job.

I tried tree-topping hairs on my arm, and it really didn't do it - just a few hairs were coming off. So, bad honing through not enough experience with the slates?

Well, I tried a test shave, and it shaved pretty well - probably as good as any other edge I've managed so far. And that surprised me - and helped teach me not to put too much store in any tests other than an actual shave.

Cleaning up the slates, I noticed they were looking quite shiny, so I wondered if maybe they were clogged with swarf. But I've now cleaned them up with a small cleaning/lapping stone, and I don't think there was any swarf - all I really got was the usual slate slurry.

So, does this fit in with anyone else's experience of these slates, and does anyone have any tips for getting the best out of them?

Alan

There's a huge thread on these Welsh slates here.

I've got a Llyn Melynllyn, and I find it harder to get good results than using just synthetics - but then I'm not particularly good at honing. YMMV.

Originally Posted by Matt69

There's a huge thread on these Welsh slates here.

Ah, excellent, thanks!

I use slurry, then plain water, then honing oil or Smiths honing solution and get very good results with the Slate hones especially the dark grey one

Originally Posted by Matt69

There's a huge thread on these Welsh slates here.

I've got a Llyn Melynllyn, and I find it harder to get good results than using just synthetics - but then I'm not particularly good at honing. YMMV.

Originally Posted by rodb

I use slurry, then plain water, then honing oil or Smiths honing solution and get very good results with the Slate hones especially the dark grey one

Thanks - it's interesting to hear people get good results using oil or similar. I've never really liked the idea of oil, but I guess with a non-porous stone like slate it's fine.

I might also try using lather, as I've had good results that way on synthetics.