Thread: Charnley Forest?

Originally Posted by atercz

CF perform very well with slurry. I use Mikawa shiro naguras. Slurry from JNATs smooth stone surface and final result is better.

I think the message is not to slurry the stone with any novaculite particles.

Stone prep for any novaculite stone or hard stone this is my procedure step #1 draw a grid on the stone. then i place my stone on my dmt 325 i use only the weight of the stone and my hand, if you put more pressure the diamonds will break faster and or get pulled from the nickle bonding. i remove the grid twice making sure the stone is flat. step#2 onto (depends on how deep the scratches are) either 600/800 grit sand paper on a surfacing block after i remove the grid twice again on to(step 3) 1500 grit remove the grid twice again onto (step 4)2000 grit i remove the grid once also remember to keep the sides of the stone chamfered to prevent chips.i have a few stones that went through this process so onto step 5 i take another novaculite stone and place it on the newly prepped stone this is done dry and with the wight of the stone i rub them together this will produce a whitish gray dust. i remove the dust build up until i'm satisfied with the finish which should look like a dull mirror step 6 i oil the stone i have a piece of tool steel i rub the stone gently back and forth i wipe the stone off, at the end of this process you should have a stone with an mirror reflection when you put the dry stone up to your eye. i'm a perfectionist so for the average guy take your stone to step 2 or 3 and it should be fine but if you want the best honing surface possible complete the process you'll surly have two things a stone with a mirror reflection on the surface and an arm like Popeye -Craig

I love my CF. After getting several that were tool grade at best I finally scored one that performs well razors. I prefer finishing with glycerin/water mix, I haven't found an oil worth the clean-up headache.

Ok. So reading lots of posts from shaving sites on the CF. I know I will have to see what this one is like, but I think I will make sure to clean any oil from the stone. Then try with just water on a known edge from my coti to thuri finish and see if it improves or degrades. That will be the first test from this stone once it arrives. From there I will either continue water use only and may try the JNAT slurry idea. I like that sound interesting. Never used a JNAT so may be just a good intro for me. Not ready to go down that rabbit hole yet. Now if it degrades the edge I would guess either it isn't that good a quality, or it just isn't prepared enough to give that high a quality yet. I wonder if some of the results people get aren't a mix of not prepping the stone far enough to give it the smoothness needed to take the blade to that level and of coarse the quality of the stone itself. I will also try soap and lather. Then finally if all else fails I will try the oil. I think doing this will help me conclude the quality of this stone. I know many say use oil, but I have actually seen more info on great results from people using water or lather form my reading. Now this may of coarse be based on the quality or prep of the stone they are using.
For now I must just wait.

I would imagine you're seeing more good results from lather and water just because that's what most shavers use. I think that the stone will perform better terminally if you use oil or some kind of water based product intended to emulate oil.

You can certainly see what it does with other lubricants, though, a stone that works well with all lubricants is a good stone. I've not tried a charn with anything but oil, but I have had a couple of coticules that seemed to not do much of anything positive with water and when I resorted to a medium oil, they did an acceptable job finishing a razor.

Originally Posted by rideon66

I will see what I can do once it gets here. As for now here is one from the listing.
Attachment 212925

I thought about that one, but communication was just getting too frustrating. I kept asking how it behaved, and he thought I meant how finely it was lapped to.

Originally Posted by kcb5150

I thought about that one, but communication was just getting too frustrating. I kept asking how it behaved, and he thought I meant how finely it was lapped to.

He is a knife guy. I asked the same question he just said he had no idea how it would be with a razor.

Yeah, that is why it was intriguing to me. A knife guy letting it go, plus he does lap his stuff. I thought it may be because it was too slow and fine for his needs, but it was like pulling teeth to get an answer out of him. He finally said he wouldn't use it in the finishing capacity, but don't put any stock in that, I think he just wanted me to go away so a knife guy or a tool guy would buy it and leave him alone with technical questions in a language he is not good in...

Ok the stone is awesome. Just shaved with my grandfather's possibly my great grandfather's Greaves razor.
turned out really sharp, but extremely smooth. I was very surprised it felt smoother than my coti's. It felt like there was no way to even cut yourself and the hairs disappeared.
I cleaned the dtone and just used water.
Unfortunately my tablet won't let me post the pictures I took. Every time I choose the photo and it goes back to the web page it reopens the page and starts over again.

That is great to hear. Really lucky to get a good one out of the gate