Alright.

So, with all the recent talk in the YouTube videos of toxicity and stone prep and cost in regards to the Gila...I thought I'd go ahead and start completely from scratch on mine. If you recall, I had such a hard time of it previously (my methods were pretty inefficient...trying ten things at once etc), that I just concentrated on one side. The other side still had cutter marks in it throughout...but particularly at the top right corner and along one side (still on the honing surface of course). I also decided to put the work in to get the main side completely flat also...if you'll recall, it was flat in the middle but the ends dove off a bit.

So, armed with my previous knowledge to increase my efficiency, I decided to see just how long it would take me to erase visible cutter marks and flatten one side, as well as flatten the other side the rest of the way. I went into my storage and grabbed out an old half inch thick piece of broken table glass I've kept for 20yrs without using lol (see?? It pays to hold onto useless stuff!!), set it on my bench, and loaded it with 220 grit SiC. I then went to town. The piece of glass is like 2' long on one side, and I won't lie...I think that helped speed things up quite a bit. Just like honing a razor on a longer stone vs a shorter stone would. Anyhow, I used about 6 spoons of SiC total, to get both sides pretty damn close to perfectly flat. Time spent was 1:07. From there, I cleaned the glass and flipped it over, wet it, and laid down a sheet of 220 grit Rhynowet paper (if you haven't used it...the stuff is AWESOME). It only took one sheet of 220 grit to get even scratch marks from end to end on both sides of the stone. I also used the 220 grit to resurface both my Apache Red, and Apache Strata. Total time on that was 19 minutes. I then broke the 220 grit Apache Red surface on the 220 grit Gila. There was a TON of slurry generated!! About 5 minutes of that and I switched to the Strata and broke that surface against the Gila for another 5 minutes. Then it was back and forth between the three stones for another 5 minutes or so until everything had as refined a surface as they were going to get.

The surface is perfect for honing now (both sides!!), and running razors over it feels smooth as silk. 1 hour and 51 minutes...and I've got three stones in incredible condition. That doesn't seem like too huge an investment to me. Derek's stone (dmoney from the youtube video) is larger than mine I believe, but I believe he's redoing his this week. I'll be sure to ask him to keep track of the time spent. I do have two pits, one on each side inside the yellowish vein. The one on the newly flattened side was full of grit...like dirt. So, I took a diamond needle file and dug it out until it was completely visibly rock. I may still use the same file and chamfer the edges, but as it sits they are both easily avoidable, and my razors run right over the top without any audible or tactile evidence anyway so I'm currently not too worried about it.The surface is actually improved over the previous surface, as it's completely, totally even. I didn't realize how much the low sides (even the edges on the long sides were slightly low) were affecting my honing (concentrating on steering around low spots takes away from concentrating on the edge itself). Having it completely, utterly flat really is a beautiful thing.



Once the kids get to bed tonight, I'll grab up a video and a few pictures to post.