Thread: Guangxi hone. What's the general consensus?

Haha, my wife hates when my arm hair is growing back and there's the arm stubble...

By the way, don't bother with soaking this stone. You can soak it for two days, pull it out of the water and watch all the water drip off... then it's dry. The water on mine stays on well enough while honing, or you can add the teensiest tiniest bit of liquid soap to the hone and the water stays on the surface better.

Got one Guangxi for about 10 euros, just for curiosity. It is not my first line honing stone, but isn't completely bad too. IMHO it doesn't have 12k of grit. I would suggest about 8k maybe? Touching it, is rough. More rough than my Bohemian slate (bridlica) and much more rough than Green and Black Shadow from French Ardenes.



Here dry one



and here recently wet.

I use it sometimes as a pre-finishing hone. Cheap, but not very fast.

We don't see many 12 year old threads get resurrected but you did a great job!
Nice pics to boot.

Originally Posted by spazola

I love my Chinese 12K it use results in a great edge. It might be a little slow but that is fine with me. It is a hone that is great for people who enjoy the process of honing because it will take while to get a great edge. It is not a 10 pass uber hone.

Charlie

+1 on this.

For many people, the Guangxi is a great finishing hone. Like all natural hones, they do vary in quality. I had one that was probably closer to 10K and made a better intermediate hone than my other one that was a decent finisher. However, I have a very coarse beard and very sensitive skin. I like finishing hones that are even finer than 12K and then use pasted strops to further polish my edges. My favorite finishing hone is the Suehiro Gokumyo 20K, but it is rather expensive for those who do not need a hone that fine.

As for Coticules, I like using mine as an intermediate hone to prepare my edge for the finishing hone, but the Coticule does not produce an edge sharp enough for my beard. They do make a very smooth edge, so those who do not need a super sharp edge tend to like them.