Thread: Russian hones

Hi i am from Bulgria , but it is like my country was an ex russian republic . I Have few russian razors and hones .
Both razors and hones are amazing cuters , diferent from the others but very good. I have few - 15 hones, from 400 to 3000 grit . they all are pretty fast cuters and have very uniform gritt size and cratch patern. They are 2 type - aluminium oxide and sic hones , all very hard , working well with oil or soap leather , ferouciouly fast with watter , but they clug and need rubbing for relising the steel dirt.
I have 400 600 800 1000 grit and one that is 3000 -4000 grit very hard and a slow cutter , especialy made for razors . The same one used with oil lather or soap and less presure leaves finer grit marcs , but worcks slowly . All grit scratch patern is observed under 30 and under 60 magnification and theese numbers are compared to Makita1200 / King deluxe1200 / and Chosera 1000 and Suehiro 1000 3000 .
The remarcable thing is that theese russian synthetycs give such uniform scratch patern and are pretty hard that gives such big diferents when used with slurry and watter or oil/lather as 3rd option.
Last weec i bought fram local flea market weel from an industrial grade grinding/polishing masine for 2 $. The size is 38sm diameter with20 sm diameter center hole ,1 sm thick.I sett the bevel on 1 razor wett and it is hard aluminium oxide weel ,the bond is strong ceramic like. Leaves the same as Chosera 1000 grit scratch patern on watter ,and finer that1200 King deluxe when used with slicky dish washing soap.
Just have to cut it to convinient size and they will be 4 or 5 big size stones for setteng the bevel.
Russian abrasives are finest qualitty hard industrial grade hones ,with hight potential.
If fomeone have beenusing rusian or bulgarian hone / ZAi signed/ is wellcome to reply and share
Rusian stropping pastes from crox /green /and diamond pastes areamazing and very productive ,als0 .I have been truyng rusian Goi paste/тонкая/ fine-3-9 microns and it is very fast.
Russians have verry good fine natural hones ,hard,novaculite like -Belorrechitt green Iashma and Ural Iashma/jasper / . They are verry hard and are usualy used as a finishers ,even in conbination of diamond pastes.
We are waitting russian members now to share.

Thank you RusenBG, very informative.
When I opened the thread, I was expecting to read about natural stones. I was thinking, Russia covers like the 10% of land on earth, they definitely have some awesome stones.
Also, from a quick google search I found out that Thuringia belonged to the Soviet occupation zone after WWII, so, it's possible to find Thuringian stones in Russia. If there are any Russian rockhounds here, I would like to know if there were any quarries of natural finishers in Russia. And, how easy is it to get some of those stones.

Originally Posted by Vasilis

Thank you RusenBG, very informative.
When I opened the thread, I was expecting to read about natural stones. I was thinking, Russia covers like the 10% of land on earth, they definitely have some awesome stones.
Also, from a quick google search I found out that Thuringia belonged to the Soviet occupation zone after WWII, so, it's possible to find Thuringian stones in Russia. If there are any Russian rockhounds here, I would like to know if there were any quarries of natural finishers in Russia. And, how easy is it to get some of those stones.

If you check his thread on the other forum we actually talked about the Russian naturals.

If I can find a link there is a guy named Alexander that has researched a lot in to the Russian naturals. It is cool, they have some mottled green Jasper and other stuff

No i dont have russian naturals ,only synthetics .Yes there are many thuringians in Russia ,left and beried ,unknoun.What a shame ,someones trash is others treasure. We have to asksomeone from the russian members ,how to get some Jasper-Iashma.But i suspect that the shipping from mother Russia will be very expensive .
Jasper is hard slow finisher ,black arc like or Cnat .Cretans are much more intresting for rasor honing ,from my humble experience with naturals. I am now very intrested in synthetics and i tell you they have amazing 800 1000 grit bevel setters. my only barber hone so far is russian carbocorund barber hone that is etalon for 8 k ,with diferent sluries on it produce very sharp and medium to softness edge.

Заточи Клинок | Сайт о заточке ножей

I get recently 2 rusian straights - Volga and Oobaia - both 6/8 mithy condition . Old horse hide strop with heavy linen and 1 combination hone natural Belorechit and black yasma . Very intresting hone indeed , not especialy in my taste .
The white belorethit microcvartz is transludent and the black jasper is very fine.

About (jnat, cnat..- rnat? ):

Belorachit (a quartzite from river Belaya)
info in russian Белоречит (Белорецкий кварцит) | Заточи Клинок
pictures https://fotki.yandex.ru/users/beavers-net/album/357369/
Slow cutter (but not so slow as hard fine example of c12k aka "Guanxi"), but fine - finer than most of trans arks. It frequently contains a lot of pyrite.
Mainly used with oil or salt water.

Baikalit (a quartzite from lake Baikal)
Микрокварцит (Байкалит) | Заточи Клинок
pictures https://fotki.yandex.ru/users/beavers-net/album/456112/
It's very close to hard fine arkansas by results, but a little bit different about sharpening feelings.
Mainly used with oil.

Both of them are rare - producing of Belorechit has been stopped in 1985.. I can't find a second date for Baikalit - near this year too.

Jasper... it's a difficult question :]
There(Russia) is a holywar between "man, it's just a jasper. If it's hard, green, good and smells like jasper - I believe that it's jasper - it's a jasper" and "no-no-no. Only some sorts of jasper wth geological conclusion can be eaten used for sharpening. Only true jasper is jasper"
I've stretch the story... a little bit..

So, there are green monotone https://fotki.yandex.ru/next/users/b.../764192?page=0
or light spotted like this one https://fotki.yandex.ru/users/beavers-net/album/381587/ jasper
and all others.
Jasper can work fast (like arkansas) - it depends on the state of it's surface. Jasper wouldn't cut if it's surface smooth as glass. That's why it's so difficult to say a word about gritness.
Mainly used with oil.

CF vs jasper.. i don't know.. I had about 5 CF and there are different cutting speed, hardness, finess.. It's just different stones.

I don't know what to add.. If you have a question - feel free to ask. I'll try to answer.

I have several of these stones. I think that the stones work better with butter.

Gibson , Are you living in Rusia federation . I love my Belore4it stone - it is faster than any coticuele on slurry and it is abbout 3 - 4 k level stone . Mine is in combination stone with a black hard stone . super fine and superb finisher .
Im imtrested in a rusian jasper stones .

Originally Posted by RusenBG

Gibson , Are you living in Rusia federation . I love my Belore4it stone - it is faster than any coticuele on slurry and it is abbout 3 - 4 k level stone . Mine is in combination stone with a black hard stone . super fine and superb finisher .
Im imtrested in a rusian jasper stones .

I live in Ukraine. The stones are rarely used, but they work well. Most often use Escher.