Curious about my hone

I noticed something the other day when I used my Chinese 12k and I'm not concerned but I'm really just curious as to what's going on.

One side is a super smooth dark blue/grey/black with some barely noticeable veins. It's quite a matte finish. I initially used this side the other day when I got it and spent 5-10 minutes on my Baurmann straight, making it even more well finished and refined than it had been before. It felt rather off to hone on it as I felt almost nothing moving over it and there didn't seem to be any slurry or discolouration of the water, even though I did give the slurry stone (a chunk of c12k) a spin around the stone.

The other side is lighter, with lines sweeping in a partial circular pattern. In contrast to the dark side my finger makes a noise when it slides across it, there's some feedback when I'm honing and there's slurry produced with the slurry stone.

There's no doubt in my mind that things improved in a noticeable way for my straight when I did it on this darker side and I haven't tested my kamisori out after using the light side but seeing water discolouration there I feel like it's a positive too.

If I have mastered this forum system then we'll have a side by side picture available... within an edit or three.

I know it's a natural stone but can someone explain what's happening with the stone and what it means for me and my razors? :)

Thanks

The lighter side looks scratched up and in need of a lapping. That would explain why slurry is so easy to make and why you have feedback. I personally wouldn't use that side until it is lapped. The darker side looks great. I don't get much feedback on mine as they are very hard stones and when properly lapped will give a fine edge. On a hard stone slurry takes some effort but one way to make it easier is to take some high grit sandpaper 1-2k or an emery board and scuff up the slurry stone. This gives it some texture and helps with slurry. Just my 2c

Oh my, I hope OP is pulling our leg. If you ran a razor over that side with the circular gouging/marking you probably smoked your edge. Better get out the hones and start over again. Any irregularities as bad as that on the surface of a hone used for a razor can catch the edge and destroy it instantly.

As with any hard stone, the coarser the stone is lapped the faster it will cut - this is because the microscopic peaks of the abrasive on the stone are sharp and far apart, resulting in high pressure per unit of area - which gives fast cutting with a bad finish. Once you smooth the stone out you flatten these peaks and the gaps between them become smaller, resulting in slower cutting but a far improved finish, now the pressure per unit of area has decreased because more stone is in contact with the steel. As with anything, when smoothing the stone there is a point of diminishing return where once you get so smooth you will mostly be decreasing the stone's cutting speed and requiring more pressure to cut but not appreciably be improving the resulting finish. You need to experiment with different stones to find out where the perfect point is for you.

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Originally Posted by Steel

The lighter side looks scratched up and in need of a lapping. That would explain why slurry is so easy to make and why you have feedback. I personally wouldn't use that side until it is lapped. The darker side looks great. I don't get much feedback on mine as they are very hard stones and when properly lapped will give a fine edge. On a hard stone slurry takes some effort but one way to make it easier is to take some high grit sandpaper 1-2k or an emery board and scuff up the slurry stone. This gives it some texture and helps with slurry. Just my 2c

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Exactly the kind of response I was hoping for. Measured and informative explaining what I was experiencing and why.

My c12k slurry stone is pretty much identical to my c12k. Some perfect dark faces with some of the rougher and meaner looking light sides.

I'm due to give the kamisori a face shave test in the next day or two once I have a decent growth to test it's mettle against so I think I'll do that and see how it goes. I tried a different ratio this time as my first hone through 8k and 12k worked but wasn't really enjoyable. Despite using that rougher side it's passed the leg hair test (no longer have arm hair to test with :) ) and my cheeks are quite resilient these days with the winter winds.

Yea, the back side needs lapping. Looks like it was flattened on 60 grit.

These are hard stones and will not produce a lot of slurry, they are polishers. They should be used after an 8K or to touch-up.

The face should be finished with pressure and hard flat carbon steel. The goal is to get the stone face as smooth as possible.

Use it with clear water, slurry will just dull a keen edge. You may want to look at the edge you ran on the back side, before you shave with it.

They are fun stones and you will learn a lot about honing by experimenting and mastering them. They are similar to a hard Ark stone and can vary dramatically from one side to the other.

They do require a lot of laps, 100 + is not uncommon.