Thread: Llyn Idwal ID and use

Still new to most things Straight Razor, certainly to hones and honing in general. I check local classifieds daily to see what might be available, and found this and an Illinois Razor Strop Co. Strop for less than 20.00. Before picking it up I did some research and I'm pretty sure it was advertised correctly based on the coloring and bit of chipping on the corner and flaking on one side. I chamfered the edges with 180 grit w/d, then did a progression on the better side of the stone with 180, 400, 600, 800, and 1000. Although it was clearly doing something to the stone due to the production of milky white slurry, I think the stone did quite a bit more work on the sandpaper...it destroyed the paper pretty quickly. I did that on a small glass side table on the patio, keeping it wet during the process.

I have several newly acquired razors that need honing, so I was able to try out the new stone a Fox Cutlery razor. I had great success with setting a bevel on 1k King, then went to the 4/8 norton (saying it that way makes it sound like I have options...but that wouldn't be accurate at all). I used water and a drop of dish-soap with the Llyn Wald. I understood that the LW should be in the 8-9k range, but I did the norton 8k first for comparison using a 30k loop. The Norton 8k seemed more reflective and felt shaper w hanging hair test than the LW, and through the loop the finish from the Norton was more reflective. The LW finish seemed more grey-ish than reflective. I finished it up with 25 passes on a pasted strop and another 50 on leather, but still didn't think the edge looked as nice off of the Norton, although I didn't try to shave with it. I went back to the Norton, then followed the same finishing progression, minus the LW, and it feels and looks as nice as any edge I've worked on yet. I shaved a bit of one cheek dry and it made me smile

I think I'll give it a go again today and if I can get a good bevel set on another razor (I'm up to about 75% success rate recently) I'll go from 4k to LW and take some pictures of the scratch pattern difference and follow up here.