Thread: Zulu Grey vs. Greek Vermio on Identical Torreys

So I said that, since I just finished these two nearly identical Torreys that Tom sent me, and I have a couple of newer natural hones to play with, I would do sort of a honing shootout.

Both went through my usual progression of Chosera 1k, Norton 4/8k, and finishing on a freshly-lapped Naniwa 12k with whisper-light strokes under dribbling water under the faucet. Then on to the naturals:

This one in the faux tortoiseshell pearloid acrylic got about 120 strokes on plain water on the 8x3" Zulu Grey TC sent me to play with me (until mine gets here in a few months lol). Post-hone stropping consisted of 15 strokes each on rough and suede sides of my kangaroo strop to clean things up, about 20 apiece on a couple of progressively finer vintage shells, and the piece de resistance: about 150 strokes on the vintage Naomi-San French Hide shell Tom sold me with the Torreys.

The other one in black pearloid got about 80 strokes on plain water on the Vermio, which seemed to want a hair more pressure like my surgical black. My intuition told me to do about 40 more on water with a drop of dish soap, and finish with about 50 on WD-40. It seems of similar hardness to my hardest Arks, and is only 5" long, so I treated it a little more like an Ark (though they are very different geologically). Stropping progression was the same.


This morning's shave test on Wholly Kaw King of Oud lather (one of the slickest I've used) revealed the Zulu Grey as the clear winner for just a nice, smooth "velvet squeegee" level of shave, and it might be the easiest natural hone I've ever used! (so similar to a thuri in effort and results).

The Vermio was still a great shave-just the tiniest bit crispy like an Arkie edge, maybe 2% behind the ZG. It will no doubt smooth out with subsequent shaves.

I hope this helps anyone looking at or comparing these two great hones. Right now, I'm liking the ZG, and am seriously glad I ordered one at 50% off. Merry Christmas fellas!

On a Torrey, I would have put money on the ZG all day long, I often use it for American steel with "Wow Results" I just don't have enough experience with the Vermio to know what steel it excels on consistantly

Originally Posted by gssixgun

On a Torrey, I would have put money on the ZG all day long, I often use it for American steel with "Wow Results" I just don't have enough experience with the Vermio to know what steel it excels on consistantly

I don't have enough experience with either one to say what they will do consistently, but yeah, the ZG definitely shone on hard American steel.

That said, I've gotten some great edges off the Vermio on a few recent edges (both the Shakespeare (Sheffield) and the S. Karam (German) had softer steel-I wish I could remember the other ones I used it on with stellar results). Right now the ZG is my favorite hone-I want to compare it to my beloved SB Arkie on identical razors and see how they compare. More fun with naturals!

I'd love to hear about the SB Arkie VS Zulu Aaron. For someone who loves his Arkie. It might be a game changer.

I'll try to find two more similar blades to try that one on, Jerry. I too really love my Arkies, but I'm all about the smooth, so if the ZG is consistently more smooth, we'll see. I keep looking for the 1 holy grail natural that will do it all. Meanwhile, I'm having a blast trying them all, though I haven't done much more than dabble in cotis and jnats-I'm finding I like simple on a hone.

In other news, I finally got the Belomo Triplet 10x loupe cuz someone on here hyped it quite a bit, and wow-the detail under good light is all I need. I think I'm gonna toss my $5 Chinese junk magnifiers now!

Last I heard the Holy Grail was in Spain not South Africa...................

Originally Posted by 32t

Last I heard the Holy Grail was in Spain not South Africa...................

Not to mention what happened to all the knights on the Grail Quest (though the only one who was pure enough to touch it got carried straight to heaven by a host of angels).

I gotta dig out my Zulu's and give them some love.

Yeah, Randy-I've been doing some reading and googling. Seems like people are really divided on this stone. Mainaman said years back that they were better than his Escher-not sure how he feels about them now. But I did come across an interesting Zulu honing vid on YouTube by Robert Ortiz (who sold his SG20k after getting his ZG!)-I've learned a lot watching his approach on naturals. I'm going to give this a try:

As a follow-up, I'm doing a lot of honing and experimenting over my Christmas break, and so took the time to read Zib's 48-page thread on the ZG here:https://sharprazorpalace.com/hones/8...can-hones.html

Fascinating reading on the development of this stone by MichaelC starting with a few testers-not sure how I missed most of it in 2012, though I do remember all the ZG hype around '13. Anyway, one of the techniques I tried from that long thread was to finish on thuringian slurry. As I only have 1, a 5x1 Celebrated Water Stone, I used it to generate my "thuri slurry" (don't worry, I didn't hurry haha). I have done 4 razors that way, starting with a moderate slurry and about 6 sets of 20, with a light water spritz between. Rinse razor and stone, and follow with about 50 laps under dribbling water in the sink. Finish with about 50 on water with a drop of dish soap. Maybe that's over-kill, but it felt right.

My usual post-honing stropping regimen involves about 150 strokes over progressively finer roo, horse shell and Japanese cordovan (no pastes or CrOx to confuse the results). Results have been butter-smooth. I continue to be impressed by this stone, and further experimentation is warranted. I forget who in that thread strongly recommended Smith's (water soluble) Honing Oil, but I may try it once my own stone arrives-not gonna put oil on TC's stone.