Thread: Guangxi ~15,000 Grit natural stone - Thoughts?

i'm stumbling around the shaving sub-category on ebay and i came across this stone. the description says it is a natural stone from the Guangxi province in China. i tried looking it up but didn't find many results.

15000 grit slurry whetstone | eBay

the seller has more than 10 available. i figure it may be a good stone, especially for the price, to keep a nice edge on a razor every week or so. i know nothing about hones or natural stones for that matter. has anyone used a stone like this before? or would it be a waste of $5?

That is a chunk of a PHIG, or C12k, or whatever you want to call it.
IMHO the seller is overstating the grit.

More importantly it is only 2" x 2", and is intended to be used as a slurry stone. It would be tough to maintain your razor with that.

If you had a PHIG on the other hand, you could easily use that to maintain your razor.

The grit rating of 12k is utter BS, as such a rating is meaningless for a natural stone hone. So what do you think the 15k grit rating is?

The chinese hones are great for the money. I think that you get the most bang for your buck with these stones for the price. The only stone I can think of that is better value for the money is the Naniwa 12k stones which is about $80. You can typically get the Chinese stones for under $50. They are very hard stones. The item you asked about is a rubbing stone to create a slurry. You would definitely be able to maintain your razor edges on the chinese stones. As others have mentioned, you can't exactly assign a specific grit rating to natural stones because each stone varies. They are usually considered to be in the 12k range and are often referred to as Chinese 12k or C12 (to Utopian's dismay. hehe).

I'm not as experienced as some of the other guys here, but IMO...I like the chinese stones especially for the price.

Before I even got up this morning, I was hoping for another Guangxi thread. Love mine. Nuff said.

i guess there are mixed reviews on these stones. not sure if i should splurge and spend the $5 to try it out or buy a few packs of gum.

You can get a 8x2x1" for $20 at Woodcraft or cut up one of seller's 16x6x2" blocks with friends for $50-60.

Originally Posted by stimpy52

Before I even got up this morning, I was hoping for another Guangxi thread. Love mine. Nuff said.

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I generally finish with a Nakayama or an Escher but I have a Ch12k which does a nice job if I start out with slurry from a 325 credit card.

If the Ch12k was the only finisher I had, I could get by with just that one hone for finishing. But to be honest, I'm glad it's not the only finisher I have.

As cool as all these other finishers sound, I'm getting a c12/5k to finish with because it fits my budget. I'm glad to read that even though they're not the bees knees, they aint some useless junk in the trunk.

For five bucks how can you hate it-use it as a slurry stone as others have said and enjoy it. You wont see many more stones for that price,thats for sure