Thread: finisher? imperial?

Has any one have any thoughts or experience with the imperial la rocca or what ever is called. For that price out can't be any good right? Just wondering

I just tested one for someone who doesn't have a lot of honing experience (he bought one). I find that it produces an extremely keen edge, but doesn't give quite as comfortable a shave as the top notch natural finishers. I prefer the edges produced by finishing on a light slurry rather than on straight water by far. The stone can pretty easily follow a bevel setter if it's used with slurry.

There's an extensive thread and several pages of testing on another forum about this stone. I'd summarize the discussion by saying that it's an OK stone if you don't have anything better, and maybe overpriced for what it is. It appears to be a slate. Every lnowledgeable person who tested preferred a different finisher.

If you can get one at slate prices (~$20), they're decent and typical of the finer grit slates.

Cheers, Steve

I don't use mine much since I have so many better finishers. I found that if I use a high quality slurry stone, like my jnat tomo or a escher, the edges come out to be quite nice. It does have excellent feedback while honing IMO.