Thread: Good Question

Originally Posted by Double0757

I don't know what grit rating mine is, but it doesn't improve or subtract sharpness from my shapton glass16k in most cases (some times, depending on the blade, I feel it subtract). What it improves on, IMO, is comfort.

That is possibly the hardest abstract to understand with Natural Hones, although they often times bump up the "Comfort quotient" I seriously doubt many at all bump up the Keenness level...

That is why I do no subscribe to attributing Grit Equivalence to any of them

Originally Posted by mrsell63

Would anyone care to take a crack at guessing the approximate grit rating of the Zulu Grey finish stone?

This stone has become very popular lately and it almost seems to have a fan club of sorts. I am on my second Zulu Grey for reasons known only to me at this time.

Hopefully some of the Zulu owners will venture a guess. My guess is around 15k to 25k.

Anybodyelse????????

That's the same as asking to guess how big are the balls on the shelf at walmart. Yes, they may have there anything from marbles to golf balls to basketballs - you still want a guess of their 'size' (see the difference between the singular and plural) and you don't get to know which walmart store is being talked about (yes, they are somewhat similar but their stock can vary the same way the zulu hones vary).

Or what is the caliber of their guns, if that's easier to understand.

You can not assign a grit in any meaningful sense because it is simply not inapplicable.

This seems to be a recurring confusion with beginners (and others who just don't understand it), so let me explain it again. The grit is a measurement for the size of the abrasive particles when a hone is created by embedding a bunch of such particles in a far less abrasive matrix. That's not how most natural hones are even structured.
I know that somebody will jump at me that they can define 'grit' any way they like, but the truth is that they can do it only to the extent that they can define what 2+2 adds to. It is a scientific quantity with already established definition, and not understanding it doesn't mean it's open for interpretation.

Originally Posted by gugi

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Or what is the caliber of their guns, if that's easier to understand.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

.

They are as follows:
Wal-Mart
Location: Flamingo Road & Griffin
Rifles & Shotguns Only
Shotguns: 12, 20 & 410 gauge
Rifles: 30-06, 22, 556 & 223, 243 Win., 410 /45 combo (yes, it's a rifle), 30-30 lever action(only 1 at the moment)

****Note*****
Nothing else at the moment, but the truck is due in at 4:30am

Dude! You gun shop at the Wallymart?

Originally Posted by Hirlau

They are as follows:

That's not a good answer - you have to guess a single caliber, just like you have to guess a single grit. That's the core of the problem with such questions.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Dude! You gun shop at the Wallymart?

I personally don't (neither do I shop for zulus), but since they still have them somebody does...

And EVERYBODY knows there is more than one grit, Gugi,,,,,,,,,,,

Hard to get a guess at the size of the actual particles in a stone without generating a slurry using a diamond hone.

I figured the zulu hone that I had was similar to any other hard sedimentary hone that I had, that the benefit in using it came from letting it settle in (though to be fair, unlike a lot of natural hones, it came with a polished surface). It was a decent finisher, but a little more scratchy than my best natural finishers.

Like glen is describing (i think), I judge a stone based on the results on the razor, and I have no idea what number they would be. If a stone makes an edge that slips through facial hair with no pulling and without exacting a bunch of undue weepers, that's ideal. If, on top of that, it can be slurried without doing undue damage to an edge or being too far in coarseness from no slurry, that's good, too.

I didn't keep my zulu that long, it was too similar to other stones that I have that have zero chance of being sold.

I'm not aware of any natural stones that have individual particles smaller than about 3 microns, so the real question is what does the stone do when you fix those particles in place - how do they cut once they've slowed down and dulled some?

Kindof like chucking wood! How much wood?

Geico Woodchuck Commercial - Really Funny Wood Chucks Chucking Wood - YouTube