First experiences with the "Dragon" Slate hone

Hello all I have added a Dragon slate hone from inigo jones to my rather minimal collection. Before I was relying on the use of differing pressures and a synthetic nagura off a king 1k to get as sharp and edge as possible followed by stropping with Starkie blue with many many laps to get reasonably polished edge to shave off.
Its my first natural, I read all about it on here and was surprised how quickly it smoothed the bevel from 1k by using slurry and a bit of pressure. I finished on water, could not quite get a shaving edge off it, but only needed a few laps on the loaded paddle
I Lapped the stone on 180gt wet n dry and a lapping plate and it seemed smooth enough to me. Do you think it would be worthwhile to Lap the other side as high as I can go to get a bit more finish out of it?
I'm planning on adding a 4k King stone and a chinese 12K to my bargain sequence. But if the Slate is equilivent to maybe 6K on slurry 8K on water? I would hope to learn the skills to finish off the slate. Any thoughts?
Also has anyone done any close up shots of the edge from the slate. To me it looked very smooth through a good x10 loupe and yet it must be quite quick when used with slurry to get from 1K?
Thanks Will

You'll find reference to it on here as a Dragon's Tongue. I had one and found it to be about the same as my BBW in terms of the final edge. It can work right after a 1k without too much work, and the edge is very comfortable to shave off. I wouldn't call it a finisher, though.

Thanks yeah, I read your bit on it. It was very useful indeed. And I agree that it must be around 6-8k. I'm not quite ready to go for a real high finishing stone yet. But i'm wondering if I take one side of the stone allot higher on lapping if it might take it a bit further than using the side I have lapped to 160. In terms of working with what I have and on a budget I really like the stone.

Good to hear results from this stone. I've read with interest the original thread and there are several reviews but not as many as I thought there would be with that amount of posts! I'm in the process of getting one of these as well with a slurry stone as they're so affordable and I'm wanting to move away from my synthetic stones...looking forward to lapping to a glass finish and trying it myself. I currently hone up to a 6000 waterstone and strop as it's always how I've done it. Nowhere near enough according to most on here but it's served me well for nearly 14 years now! Kinda hoping for one of those life changing moments when I get myself a finishing stone and realise what I've been missing oneday!

Part of the amazement is that it was £8 and it works!! Try taking one side of yours to 180 and the other to 6000 or whatever. I'd be very interested to know if there is any real difference. I found it didn't take very long to lap really on a wet and dry on a big lapping plate. Mind you as the wet and dry wears, its just lapping in its own grit so maybe mine has a finer surface finish than I think.

I got a Dragon's Tongue from Neil Miller who estimates the grit level at around 9k. I have shaved directly off of this stone and we can consider it capable of making a quality blade shave-ready.

Interesting, in any case it seems a very versatile stone. I think I will use mine as a kind of barbers hone, on water to top up the edge of the other razors in my growing rotation. I've been following up with my pasted paddle though as that seems to give me a bit more room for error.

I had trouble improving the edge from a 6k king with the DT but am now using it with oil and it seems to squeeze a little extra out of it. I agree at the price its great, I'm not sure however that they are all created equal!

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Originally Posted by Jeltz

I had trouble improving the edge from a 6k king with the DT but am now using it with oil and it seems to squeeze a little extra out of it. I agree at the price its great, I'm not sure however that they are all created equal!

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I can tell you they are not. Darker ones seem to be of finer grit.

I like mine with Water, it cuts fast with slurry. Then it seems very slow without. I don't know if it is giving a finer poish without slurry or not. I bought 2 so I'll see how the other compares. They both look quite dark. The edge looks very smooth to me through the Loupe, i'm sure I could shave straight off it without the pated strop if I had the skill. Would like to try a C12K and see the difference in finish under magnification.

I just bought one recently with no expectations, I just liked the name. I was surprised at how fast this cut with slurry. I removed a couple of small chips from a Greaves and Sons 1/4 ground in just a few minutes. Then Using a quick dilucot I finished on water and was really amazed at how keen the blade was. I was not expecting it to be compairible to my 8k SS but it seemed that it was "maybe" even slightly finer. This could have been a fluke and it was the first and only time I've used it so far. I haven't shaved off of it yet.
The one thing I noticed is that When used with water the blade was trying to stick to the hone and kept skipping. I had to keep a lot of water on top of the hone to keep this from happening. I think I may try finishing with lather to see if that helps. I did lap the stone to 5 micron a/o film and I suspect that's the cause.


Sean

I've been honing my razors on it going straight from setting the bevel on a cheap 1k king stone.

Its important to get the bevel spot on with no burs or flat spots, then finish on very light passes on water only to get it as sharp as possible to make the leap straight to the Dragon.

I make a good thick slurry with the Dragon stone and do 50 circles in each direction with a little pressure. The 1K scratches are now gone.

I then do about 50 laps from one side of the stone to the other watering down the slurry with water and gradually decreasing the pressure applied.

Then I do a dozen laps on my longstrider strop + starkie blue. Then 2 laps or so on the dragon stone dry with no pressure. This to to check there is no micro bur from the strop, I might repeat this a couple of times. But finally finishing on the strop.

This is the best shaving edge I have achieved yet and better than the shave ready razor I purchased which was sharp but felt aggressive to the face and not smooth sharp. I'm not claiming its a finishing stone but its a really good pre-hone to a Starkie blue pasted strop. I'm going to try a Chinese 12k natural next as they are also quite cheap.

Obviously a 4K hone in the mix would be a good thing. I have a synthetic Nagura and have been finishing with slurry from that on the 1K. No idea what grit that is if if it would work on a soft 1K. Generally very happy with the Slate.
I've also found it very handy for finishing my Kitchen knives.
I've only Lapped mine on 180gt paper which I let wear down so it was lapped on its own grit.

I am thinking I want one of these just for fun, but want to check with prior buyers if te inigo Jones does come with the cool cardboard box like the web site says..

Slate Honing Stones for sale by Inigo Jones

Well mine did