Originally Posted by
Marshal
I've got one of these stones. First thing you need is the will power to lap it. They're hard as h#!! And mine came rough sawn which meant a LOT of lapping. Then you need the will power to polish it. I worked mine up to 2000 grit sand paper, then hit it with both the 4 and 8k sides of my Norton hone. Now that I can see my reflection in the stone, it puts a pretty good edge on things. The last thing you'll need I'd a good deal of patience, because it cuts slower than molasses in January.
It should come with a slurry stone. Polish one side of that while you're at it, and chamfer it's edges so you don't dig into the hone while building slurry. Do the first set of strokes with a medium slurry, and water it down as your polish gets better. After about 100 to 150 strokes you should be good. Did I mention this thing cuts slow? Because it cuts slow.
It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out how to use the C12k effectively. Now that I've got it right, I love the hone. Whether it's worth the work to save the money you'd spend on a faster cutting finisher I can't say. I don't have a Belgian coticule or Thuringian to compare it to. And it seems to be much like my small black Arkansas as far as cutting speed and final polish goes. I still want an Arkansas hone, but I'm content with my C12K for the time being.
Edit: my slurry stone is made of the same hard-as-frikkin-diamond stone as the hone itself. If it doesn't have one, I might suggest using it without the slurry. Might cut even slower, might not. I'm still not entirely convinced that using one speeds the process up any, it's just fun to play with.