Thread: Guanxi hone problems

Originally Posted by DaveW

The only ones that I had that were junk were the ones that were too soft. That said, I only had one that was "really good", and it was the first one I had. I sold it thinking they were all like that.

This is why I would NEVER sell my Guangxi stone. It was fate that we came together

Originally Posted by Steel

This is why I would NEVER sell my Guangxi stone. It was fate that we came together

I was thinking the same thing. After reading about how these stones are hit and miss I don't think I would get rid of mine.

Originally Posted by JSmith1983

I was thinking the same thing. After reading about how these stones are hit and miss I don't think I would get rid of mine.

Yes. I figure it is the same with any natural out there. Most are great, a few are bad, and a few are magical. It's the magical ones that you want to hold on to.

Originally Posted by Steel

Yes. I figure it is the same with any natural out there. Most are great, a few are bad, and a few are magical. It's the magical ones that you want to hold on to.

Agreed & I happen to love all 3 of my guangxi stones. They are fantastic and actually the stone i use as a slurry stone is a large piece of guangxi that is so big I could actually use it to refresh a razor in the palm of my hand if I wanted to. I, like you, use it for the final polish on my other guangxi stones. I use it to mainly keep them flat and polish them and have begun to use it more to form slurry on my coarser guangxi. It also happens to be beautiful when wet with some gorgeous swirls through it. If I could upload pics I would take some and post them.I am often perplexed at why these stones are so frowned upon by many. I hear people say dont get it for a finisher after your 8k as it is coarser than an 8k. Who cares? I dont care about its grit rating (perceved, real or otherwise), I care what it does to my edge and mine DRAMTICALLY improves an 8k edge and in fact my guangxi finisher improves on a 12k naniwa edge as well. I love it.I do believe the prep of this stone is important. Yes it is lapped but I firmly believe that the final polish on the stone post lapping is what will allow you to get a great edge. If you dont do that it is likely that it would take hundreds of honings for the stone to get to the point of being a great finisher. Anyway I could live without my coarse guangxi and my combo guanigxi if I had too but you would have to pry my guangxi finisher from my cold dead hands.

The surface texture on every hard natural hone is extremely critical to the resultant finish produced by the stone.

And not every natural varies as much as the Chinese stones. There are no bad thuris or coticules.(Some coti can be soft for razors but are extremely rare)

Judging by the quantity they put on the market I doubt there is any quality control. If you have a nice one good for you but I'm not interested in gambling. I would rather shell out 100-200$+ to a reputable vendor and get a stone I know is a grade A razor hone first try.

So much in regard to the PHIG's, rests with the user. Like any natural, you need to learn the stone. If you want an easier path to follow, buy a man made water stone. Many PHIG's get tossed, or resold before they are learned.

If someone gave me a top of the line JNAT,, I would have no idea on how to bring out the best it in, until I spent hours reading about the experiences of others here , even more hours on the stone itself.

Originally Posted by JimmyWetshaver

...… I dont care about its grit rating (perceved, real or otherwise), I care what it does to my edge and mine DRAMTICALLY improves an 8k edge and in fact my guangxi finisher improves on a 12k naniwa edge as well. I love it.I do believe the prep of this stone is important. Yes it is lapped but I firmly believe that the final polish on the stone post lapping is what will allow you to get a great edge. If you dont do that it is likely that it would take hundreds of honings for the stone to get to the point of being a great finisher. Anyway I could live without my coarse guangxi and my combo guanigxi if I had too but you would have to pry my guangxi finisher from my cold dead hands.

Exactly. What I look for is not a grit rating but how does it fit in with other stones and what kind of an edge do I wind up with if its a finisher. The two closest edges were a thuri and a naniwa 12k and it actually improved both of those slightly. Someday I would like to try a JNat because they intrigue me but for the $ I spent on my Guangxi I sure wouldn't sell it for that! of course as others have noticed I am biased. Love is blind. Lol.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

So much in regard to the PHIG's, rests with the user. Like any natural, you need to learn the stone. If you want an easier path to follow, buy a man made water stone. Many PHIG's get tossed, or resold before they are learned.

If someone gave me a top of the line JNAT,, I would have no idea on how to bring out the best it in, until I spent hours reading about the experiences of others here , even more hours on the stone itself.

This is so very true. For the longest time I did not like my CNAT because I did not know how to use it. So I ignored it for the longest time. Then I read a thread awhile ago that someone wrote about how they use theirs and I tried it and it was awesome. For the longest time I thought I had a garbage stone and that it was too soft for the fine finish but really its just needed to be used correctly.

I love that i found this post... I also need help with my cnat... Ive been finishing my razors on my cnat for 3 years... Dozens! Always happy but i never had anything better or worst... Well my aust from srd was stellar! I think they use nani12k
I used king 1k, 6k one stone method and finished on cnat... Heavy slury to clear water...
I recently bought all naniwas except the 12k... I noticed under a 40x the razor after the nani 8k has a great mirror finished that went away when i hone it with the cnat.... I didnt shave with it and went back to the 8k and strop with crox... Does it really matter to have a mirror finish on the bevel/edge? I shaved with the razor and its ok but i wondet if the cnat will inprove the shave even if it clouds the bevel...!? Thoughts?