Thread: Water vs slurry

Thank you all, gentlemen, for the given information.

I'm pretty economic on resources, not only by the amount of cash available (anything from anywhere outside Brazil customs pray upon costs me 60% + in taxes) but also by the local availability of goods. So, everything I have to hone a razor is the translucent Arkansas (6x3x1'), a Chinese Guanxi hone (the "12k") about the same size, a big vintage coticule and a lapped glass plate I use with 1200 wet-dry sandpaper to set/refurb heavily butchered bevels, no JNats. I decided to go on this aforementioned technique because not always I need to bring back my razors to the slurried coticule, so I can spare it just by using a small slurry piece of coti on the arkansas back. Happy to know I'm not mauling the arkie by running garnets on it. The results I can attain from these supplies, plus my strop set (CrO paddle and the hanging one) seems to be enough, so far.

Originally Posted by Marshal

I doubt you're doing any damage since you're using one side for slurry, and the other for polish. In fact, that's what I do with my Welsh slates. One side is roughed up and used for slurry/fast (er) cutting. The other is polished and burnished for finishing and used water only.

On topic - as others have said, slurry is more to speed up the cutting action and typically you'll dilute it and finish with just water. You don't 'need' slurry - but depending on your progression/hone it may make things infinitely quicker. My question is, what are you using before you move to the Jnat? If a 10 or 12k synthetic, I can't imagine you would need much slurry if any at all before moving to your finishing stone. If it's a lower grit, slurry will be a must, and how thick will depend on what grit synthetic you're employing.

On your question, anything around 3-6k or even a norton/Naniwa 8k if you have one around is sufficient enough before using your natural with slurry (don't overdo it, it doesn't have to be muddy) and diluting, without too much time spend on honing. Unless your natural stone is extremely slow or a couple of millimeters in thickness and you are trying to make it last as long as possible with what you have, any fine, man made finishing stone is not needed, even an 8k.
Specifically for Jnats, the high quality or razor grade ones, I only finish with slurry from a tomonagura and strop, plain leather (small sized Kyoto fine stone, not the white Mikawa or black Tsushima ones preferably, although they are not too bad for finishing either) because the fine stones with plain water somehow irritate my skin after the shave. Smooth and very sharp with a very nice feeling while shaving, but for the rest of the day my skin feels like I'm badly sunburned. I only get it from good Japanese naturals.

For touching up I will use a 12k Naniwa and a 20k Suehiro. The edge is very sharp but I have found on certain razors, not the smoothest shave. I have used a chromium oxide paddle strop-5 laps, then 20 laps on a horse hide paddle strop and that produces a very smooth shave. I just bought a Jnat finishing stone to see how that works in the progression. I figure a light slurry then water should do it. If I need more work on a blade I will drop down to a Shapton 4k then up to the 12k. I don't use the Shapton 8k because I didn't see a major difference with or without it. I guess I am bitten by the Jnat bug. I am also going to try and use the Jnat progression on a couple of old razors instead of the 4k. Great to listen to all the different ways of doing this.