Because I've only been honing a few months and as a result am still in the learning phase, i've been careful about selecting hones to use for setting a bevel.

My Coti is very slow, and rarely gets dark from metal removal when I use a slurry. Typically the slurry dries out before there is any indication of metal removal, so I continually recreate the slurry when working on a bevel. Eventually the slurry gets dark, but not before I have serious doubts about whether it's working or not.

Recently I picked up a Cotcarb (BBW backed with a 600 grit carborundum) and tried using the carbo side prior to my coti w/slurry. This seems to work. But I'm wondering whether 600 is entirely too rough.

Complicating (or more accurately, what makes this all so interesting) the matter is a few x-hones I've also picked up. One seems to be a very old benchsize brown carborundum. Another is a very very hard black natural that seems to be a black Arkansas. Still another is a long thin brown spotty natural that seems to be rougher than the black one. I've been testing them on a 19th century sheffeild chisel that I'm guessing is of similar steel to the razors that Im working on. But deciding to try these out on a razor is giving me a moment of pause.

I'd like to figure out if any of these can set a bevel without possibly ruining a razor. Any advice? Is there an acceptable grit range for carborundum stones used for bevels? I'm not able to post picturesnfor am couple of weeks I'm on vacation