Thread: Natural stones for bevel setting?

I am a big fan of natural stones for honing. I love my BBW, Coticule, and Chinese finisher! Are there any lower grit natural stones out there that can be used for setting a bevel? At least any that are reasonably priced. I would love to be able to use one to set the bevels on my razors. What did they do in the old days, to set bevels, before the 250/400/1k grit man-made stones came along?

Have you tried building a slurry on your coticule?

Originally Posted by JNT

I am a big fan of natural stones for honing. I love my BBW, Coticule, and Chinese finisher! Are there any lower grit natural stones out there that can be used for setting a bevel? At least any that are reasonably priced. I would love to be able to use one to set the bevels on my razors. What did they do in the old days, to set bevels, before the 250/400/1k grit man-made stones came along?

I played with this one more last night: http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ot-norton.html
It definitely works, it's just slower than I am used to with my synthetic stones.
I have an unidentified natural stone that works faster than the queer creek, but still not as fast as most of my synthetic stones.

They are out there...

No I have not tried to set a bevel with a Coticule. I know that a few of the honemeisters do apply that method when setting a bevel. I have read about it but I thought it would be a longer process that using a very low grit stone like in the 400 to 1K range. What is the effective grit of a coticule with slurry?

On that same note, I kind of shy away from slurry. The only stone that I have tried to use slurry on is my BBW and I can never get a good edge when using slurry on it. I am not sure yet what I am doing wrong. I feel that I get good results withOUT slurry, although it isn't a quick process, it takes longer than it would with slurry of course. I don't know if I am using too much slurry or not enough or pressing too hard or not hard enough. I just know that when I use slurry it seems to really dull my edges back to the point where I need to go back down to a lower grit, like a 1k. I haven't had the time yet to play around and experiment, to try different amounts of slurry and pressure.

JNT = Japanese NaTural

There are plenty of lower grit Japanese Naturals out there check out the knife forums, also KevinT and Mainaman on here, know the J-nats pretty well drop them a pm and ask...


But you are going to have to learn how to use a slurry if you are going to get into using naturals, most (not all) of them just work better that way

Hi Glen, Thanks for the reply. I have never tried any JNT but I have seen the prices of them. Kind of out of my price range. Maybe I will just play around with the Coticule/Slurry honing and see what I come up with.

Thank you!!!

The lower grit ones are rather inexpensive really, check them out..

Ok sounds good. I will do!

Originally Posted by JNT

No I have not tried to set a bevel with a Coticule. I know that a few of the honemeisters do apply that method when setting a bevel. I have read about it but I thought it would be a longer process that using a very low grit stone like in the 400 to 1K range. What is the effective grit of a coticule with slurry?

On that same note, I kind of shy away from slurry. The only stone that I have tried to use slurry on is my BBW and I can never get a good edge when using slurry on it. I am not sure yet what I am doing wrong. I feel that I get good results withOUT slurry, although it isn't a quick process, it takes longer than it would with slurry of course. I don't know if I am using too much slurry or not enough or pressing too hard or not hard enough. I just know that when I use slurry it seems to really dull my edges back to the point where I need to go back down to a lower grit, like a 1k. I haven't had the time yet to play around and experiment, to try different amounts of slurry and pressure.

Bevel setting on a coticule is sort of a gamble unless you buy a hone you tested first. I got lucky with mine when I bought it blind and it cuts incredibly fast, it takes about 5-10 minutes to set bevels and turn slurry black.

Originally Posted by JNT

No I have not tried to set a bevel with a Coticule. I know that a few of the honemeisters do apply that method when setting a bevel. I have read about it but I thought it would be a longer process that using a very low grit stone like in the 400 to 1K range. What is the effective grit of a coticule with slurry?

On that same note, I kind of shy away from slurry. The only stone that I have tried to use slurry on is my BBW and I can never get a good edge when using slurry on it. I am not sure yet what I am doing wrong. I feel that I get good results withOUT slurry, although it isn't a quick process, it takes longer than it would with slurry of course. I don't know if I am using too much slurry or not enough or pressing too hard or not hard enough. I just know that when I use slurry it seems to really dull my edges back to the point where I need to go back down to a lower grit, like a 1k. I haven't had the time yet to play around and experiment, to try different amounts of slurry and pressure.

Until I read Glen's tutorial on the slurry I stayed away as well, but he has me soundly converted to slurring all my honshining of my rashagubers...wait, not slurring my speech, just slurrying my hones!

I don't have tons of experience on the BBW, but I'm 3 for 3 with happy results at the sharpening stage. I use a slurry, but it's kind of watery, not a really thick or goopy slurry. I guess I'd call it half a slurry, and I keep it that way until it's time to start watering it down to clear.

But having only done 3 razors, admittedly with happy results on all three, I am not the best authority. So why did I even speak up? Because beginners talk too much, and I'm a beginner, so…wait...