ZY Razor hone - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly...

So, as promised I honed a razor on the ZY Razor hone I ordered off ebay. We'll start with the good:

The packaging was surprisingly good. It was in one of those bubble-wrap bags and surrounded by styrofoam on all sides. I could chuck this thing against a brick wall full force and the hone would've probably been OK. One side was already pretty much dead flat, and felt smooth enough to fit my rigorous standard for a natural surface - I felt like I could've just take a razor right to the hone without messing with it. Of course I screwed that up brushing the rubbing stone against it as a test and wound up lapping and polishing it anyway.

I honed a Torrey Straight on it, setting the bevel on a Norton 4K, cleaning it up on the 8, then moving on to the ZY hone. Feed back was a teeny bit gritty - less so than my coticule, but even after polishing up to 8K (yes OCD, I know) it still had texture to it. But under a 30x loupe I saw neither improvement nor degradation compared to a Norton 8K edge. The shave reflected this, I would place it somewhere above a Norton 8K but below my Chinese 12K. So it isn't a bad hone by any means. For reference I treated it as I would the Guangxi hone coming off the Norton 8K - that is, 50 laps pure water, 50 on shaving lather.

The bad: They put the stickers on the honing surface - it was a pain in the backside to get the glue from the stickers off. The little rubbing stone that came with it felt about like concrete. Very coarse, and would totally trash the surface of the hone if you like a good polish/burnish. I was a little surprised to see that rather than 1 contiguous piece of rock, they took 3 - 8"x3" slates, stacked them, and glued them together. This in itself isn't problematic unless they used 3 different grade pieces of slate. If the top is good razor hone and the bottom 2 are trash slate, you could be in for disappointment if you actually manage to wear through the good slate.

The ugly: A picture is worth 1,000 words -

Attachment 252848

So, after lapping it with a worn DMT I went to sand the scratches from the DMT out in a baking pan that I lined with sand paper. As soon as I flipped the rock over, the center stone split right down the middle and half my hone fell into the pan. I guess now I have 2 ZY razor hones? Considering the middle layer split and it didn't come unglued I guess I really can't fault ZY for this. It didn't have an obvious split or flaw there, and I looked pretty close. I'm not sure if that's the result of shipping damage, or just a random schism in natural material. Just slate being slate I guess. I like the way the honing surface performs, maybe I'll just glue the dern thing back together, or cut up the back piece to make slurry stones.

It doesn't appear to be the Guangxi/Chinese 12K that we're all familiar with, so it has that going for it. Knowing what I know now, were I to order another I might stick with the 8x3 format, but opt for a thinner hone rather than paying more just to have 3 stacked and glued together.

More photos, wet and with slurry made from a diamond plate:

Attachment 252849

Attachment 252850

edit - the circle in that last pic is from the sticker/glue. It's been lapped away now, but they could've stuck that on the unfinished surface or something.

Wouldn't let me edit the post to add this, but I figured it would be helpful to also indicate that this is the #3000 razor hone. They also sell a #2000 that makes yellow slurry. Kinda of hard to tell from Ebay descriptions if there's supposed to be any difference in how fine one or the other is. I picked the #3000 to try on the assumption that the larger number and slightly higher price would indicate a finer performance.

I may try the #2000 in the future, but given what I've learned from the #3000 I'm probably going to stick with the thin profile when I do. I still find it amusing that they glued 3 thin slabs together to make a 1" stone.

Small update: a while back I found a thread where the topic of using a cotton wheel and paste to further refine the surface of natural hones. So I set to work polishing most every natural in my possession - this thing included.

One thing I didn't mention before that really caught my attention this time: This hone stinks. Sure it's a natural and you can expect them to smell like the ground they came from, but when I got this wet and started to hone on it I got a kind of overwhelming earthy smell. Like my face was hovering inches over a mud puddle though the hone was at arm's length. I noticed this with the coticule too, but it's aroma was more muted and tolerable. Whatever rock this is I don't care for the scent of.

That aside, what we care about is the stone's performance. I used the same razor, which I had not shaved with or otherwise touched since the last time I tested it, and did a quick touch up with water and shave lather. I can't remember the count, but I either doubled it or used the same 50/50 as before. With the surface polished by a cotton buffing wheel and chrome-ox the gritty feeling the stone had prior is gone. The edge became keener, but not by a large amount. One thing that I did find rather impressive though, is this edge had a comfort level similar to my coticule. The stone produced one of those edges that wanted to cut hair, and not skin. Not the same level of comfort mind, but hot on the coticule's heels in that regard.

If the Norton 8K shave is the benchmark, I would say this is in the same realm of keenness, but again with an increased level of comfort. Even more so now than before I attacked it with paste and a buffer. I did a 1 pass shave with very little dry cleanup, and I would say it's a DFS. Would probably be BBS after a second full pass, but the key here is even with the quick dry touch up, when I applied Captain's Choice Cat O' Ninetails Bay Rum I got zero burn/irritation. That stuff is pretty unforgiving and burns like Hellfire more often than not. Color me impressed.

I don't know if I'll use this funny smelling rock often, but it does make an OK shaving edge. I kinda like it.

How much was it?

I want to say I paid $16 for it. Free shipping.

Can't beat that!! Nice score!:rock:

Make that 20 w/ free shipping.

And yeah, not bad for an extra cheap Chinese rock. I think it's from the same people that make Gold Dollars and of course ZY razors. I honestly thought I lit 20 bucks on fire. Especially when the rock split in my hand.

In retrospect, perhaps a better route would be to buy the thinner $4-$5 slabs and glue it immediately to a wood backer when it arrives. Still, that isn't too shabby for a stone I paid next to nothing to obtain.

Yep, your a winner all around there, especially now that you have two. It makes a good edge so far, who knows where you'll be able to take it once you dial it in. Same thing with my cnat, ILR and Vermio. I can pull edges off of those that will stand with the best.:beer1:

I do likes my Cnat - the Guangxi/C12K/PHIG. Also good point about dialing it in...I didn't think about it, but all I've really done with it is the same set number of laps I use with my Cnat. Most of my stones I know well enough that I can estimate off the cuff. But I guess treating it like it's a Guangxi when it isn't is probably not getting the most out of the stone. Good lookin out! :tu

Edit: not sure about having 2 yet, still slowly lapping away at the back side lol!

I contacted ZY shaving about their whetstones. I asked which of the 3 was the finest grit. This was their response...
New message from: zyshaving Top Rated Seller(8,104Green Star)
this one is 3000 grit.

ZY 3000# Grit Whetstone Waterstone Sharpening Stone Salon Barber Straight Razor | eBay

Best regards

I'm not sure they even know what they are selling... I may order one just to see what I get. I imagine it's not 3000 grit judging by the OP

Well, I think 2000 & 3000 are model numbers. Good to know that my off the cuff assumption that the higher number was the finer stone though.

I didn't see any grit rating given to the stone, and since it's a natural I'm not going to presume to give it one. I did see that it was labeled as a Gaungxi hone, but this isn't the same Cnat I bought years ago as a Guangxi. Very different smell, not nearly as hard, different colors, banding, and slurry color. Might be a hone from the same area/province, but I don't think it's the same material.