Thread: Good Question

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?