Thread: Ordered a new stone

I've heard the grit rating on a Zulu grey is somewhere between Awesome and super awesome.

My Zulu is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a boat right now. Or maybe a plane, or carrier pigeon, submarine. The wait once ordered is long, but you'll get your stone no doubt. Can't wait to use mine. I'm quite excited to use it.

Originally Posted by HARRYWALLY

I've heard the grit rating on a Zulu grey is somewhere between Awesome and super awesome.

My Zulu is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a boat right now. Or maybe a plane, or carrier pigeon, submarine. The wait once ordered is long, but you'll get your stone no doubt. Can't wait to use mine. I'm quite excited to use it.

I've done a couple on mine, I'd give it a grit rating between sweet and duuuude. It is a long wait, i ordered mine in mid october and got it at the end of December/begining of January.

Originally Posted by sinnfein

I haven't seen anywhere that they actually specify a similar grit value. I have just seen it labeled as a finisher

Eggs Actly.

I've only been at this a short while and somehow I got the learnin' that

NATURAL STONES

shouldn't be "grit assigned" not never. To do so is to deny their inherent natural flexibility and shows your limited understanding of natural hones.

I do understand how neat and convenient it would be to assign numbers, but actually doing so would further the confusion amongst those of use freshly learning all this old technology. It _can be_ and information overload, what with this interweb giving us everything instantaneously.

I'm not trying to call anybody out, just sayin': Hey, let's keep our nomenclature/references as correct as we possibly can lest we lead others, who seek the honing truth, astray.

Naturals are naturals, they're either bevel-setting capable, or finishers, (or intermediates). Some are slow, some are fast. Natural rocks, even as homogenous deposits, exhibit variations in cutting power and finish and hardness. We are quite spoiled to the consistency of synthetics.

From everything I've read (every single post/thread/comment WRT ZG here and elsewhere) I _expect_ my ZG to perform as a slowish-cutting finisher. And that's how I intend to use it, both self-slurried and nagura-slurried, diluted, probably water, could be soap, maybe even oil. I take it as a challenge to learn to extract the best from the rock.

Mine is on the boat too. I knew the special would slow down delivery. Today is 8 weeks, no complaints.

Thread with delivery time references and specifics about use: http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...irst-hone.html

Originally Posted by sinnfein

I haven't seen anywhere that they actually specify a similar grit value. I have just seen it labeled as a finisher

Fair warning, it can take a couple weeks for you to receive your stone...I've had several business transactions with Mike, all have been stellar.

As mentioned, you can't really put a "grit" rating on a stone as yours may be different than mine. If I were to estimate, I would say around 12-14K with water & around 16K with honing oil (actually has no oil in it).

It takes quite a few passes to finish a razor on it. I usually hone between 60 - 100x for most razors. Personally, I'm not a slurry guy either. Some have used slurry with this stone & like it...I don't as I feel that the stone is a bit hard to break down like a thuringian.

I personally like executing the high number of laps that are required to finish an edge on a natural stone like the Zulu Grey. This morning I used my Zulu to finish a Union Cutlery Expert Barber and the shave was sweet! 50 laps with slurry and 50 more that were diluted heavily with plain water. It was a pleasure to use.

I'm super excited for it to get here, trying to not hone my razors until it gets here just so I can use it right away