Thread: Rolls razor hone any good for touch ups?

Yeah mine are both a kind of slate grey too.
I wasn't aware that there were different variations.

FYI, petrographical in my first post should have read petrological, too many late nights, too little sleep.

For those who say their Roll's Razor Hones are grey, the stones coming from the Whittle Hill quarry did tend towards a grey colouration, it was an inferior type of Charnley hone, more readily available in the late 1800's/ early 1900's, that tended to have green colouring.

Regards,
Alex

Would you guys use it dry as per Rolls usage or use some water/lather on it for a straight?

Personally, I raise a light slurry with a small, 3k grit diamond stone, and do maybe 30 or so laps, and then finish with 60+ strokes using water mixed with Honerite Gold. My personal experience is that Charnleys aren't as slow as some of the early literature on the subject of hones would have us believe. However, all my Charnleys are at least 10 inches long, so you would need to increase your strokes to suit the size of a smaller hone. A number of others have said that the very best results come with honing oil, I've tried Circle Cut Oil on a couple of mine and the results were very good without using the slurry, but I find oil too messy.

Regards,
Alex

Now that I have moved and semi-settled in...


I busted out my Rolls and looked at the stone. It appears dark grey-ish/brown-ish when dry and looks a very dark brown when wet.

It has MADE IN ENGLAND stamped/inked on the back.

It seems to be VERY coarse for a finisher, but I haven't lapped it since it's so damn thin. As I get more time I will mess with it a bit more and report back.

I still may lap it, since some of the corners appear very smooth in finish. I dunno, I still don't want to have it break and never be able to use it.