Thread: Norwegian slate

Do these stones have visual characteristics by which you can distinguish them from other slates e.g. German or Welsh?

Originally Posted by Birnando

Today, Sten(str8fencer), Rune(Zephyr) and I went to what is supposed to be Northern Europe's biggest thrift market here in Oslo.
We were looking for the usual stuff, without any plan other than to walk around and keep our eyes open.
The only one capable of that it seemed was Rune, he spotted stuff all over after us old farts had passed the stand by with a less than keen eye
So, once we learned that, we started following in his steps for the rest of the day..

The weather wasn't all that nice, it was snowing and was a bit nippy to be honest.

Well, we found a few razors in decent knick, but that is another post from Rune or Sten.
What we also found was a slate hone, or rather a bunch of them.
At first Rune, the eagle-eyed, found one.
Then when we passed the same place a bit later, the one Rune bought had been replaced with a new similar one.
Hmmm, strange right?
So we asked the fella if had any more of them.
Sure, he said, a bucket full actually.
I bought one, and Sten a couple I think.

Now, to the point of this thread.
The seller told us the stones were from a place called Sande in the county of Vestfold here in Norway.

I have now tested it on 4 different razors, and with four different approaches.

1. A Filly EPBD already shave ready was given 40 laps with water only.
The resulting test was very pleasing, quite capable of a good shave.

2. Another of the same make was reset on a 1K Chosera, then honed with slurry for about 150 laps, then dilution to water. about 30 laps on water only.
This one delivered ok, but no more. I will have to test this much more before concluding.

3. A third of the same razor was honed up to a Norton 8K, then finished on the slate. Slurry with dilution. about 80 laps before diluting thru about 50, then 30 on water only.
This approach worked out fine. a fine shaving edge, not stellar, but fine.

4. A fourth of the same make was done exactly as number 3, only this one was finished on slurry, with just a little bit thinner mix at the end of the honing.
Same result as number three really, a tad more keenness to the edge perhaps.


I will have to do lots more testing with it before concluding on this rock, but I must say it was a very promising start.
Especially when I tell you that the price was about $3 per stone.

To think we left the seller with about 20 more at the same price is starting to annoy me just a little bit...

Her are some pictures of it, along with a few more rocks for comparison.

At the top is a Chosera 1K, then from the left:
A BBW backside, a Oozuku, A Y/G Escher and finally the Sande? slate.

that looks amazingly like the Welsh thuringian I just got:


I've done a bunch of test hones and it's ok but not great. VERY VERY VERY hard stone( the slurry stone is almost useless) took a lot of lapping too.Jury is still out on it.

Originally Posted by RogueRazor

that looks amazingly like the Welsh thuringian I just got:

I've done a bunch of test hones and it's ok but not great. VERY VERY VERY hard stone( the slurry stone is almost useless) took a lot of lapping too.Jury is still out on it.

Sounds a bit different than this one then.
This one was quite soft, like Eschers more or less when it comes to hardness and slurry.
Rubbing two of these together for about 5 seconds created a very visible and rather light-colored slurry.

Originally Posted by Piet

Do these stones have visual characteristics by which you can distinguish them from other slates e.g. German or Welsh?

I got 2, one has a darker line going on the one side. Some small red-ish spots/areas were on some of them. Not schwedenstein-like, but a few isolated ones. One of mine has some small yellow-orange spots on one end.
Sorry, can't take pics atm, camera is charging after the SOTD pics depleted it this morning.

If the three of you see a nice razor, how do you decide who gets it?

This is ot but I'd like to know.

Michael

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

If the three of you see a nice razor, how do you decide who gets it?

This is ot but I'd like to know.

Michael

No problem at all.
So far we have had no issues in who gets dibs on what.
The main thing with an outing like this is to have a good time together.
And we sure did have that

Originally Posted by Birnando

No problem at all.
So far we have had no issues in who gets dibs on what.
The main thing with an outing like this is to have a good time together.
And we sure did have that

I still feel kinda bad for snagging the SSA though

Originally Posted by Zephyr

I still feel kinda bad for snagging the SSA though

Nah, you spotted it, it's yours to have.
I'm stoked about the hones we found, that made my day

Test one:

For the first test I used my go-to test razor, a 13/16 Gotta.
I chose to first see what this slate with a already shave ready edge, the razor was previously finished on a vintage Thuringian.

I did 50 strokes with a medium slurry followed by 50 on water, last 20 super light and stropped 30/60 linen/leather, same as I do post shave, but less than I usually do after honing ( I usually do 100/100)

I also took a couple microscope shots, one of the Thuri edge, and one after the Sande slate.

As we know microscope pics is in no way conclusive, and doesn't say anything about how well an edge will shave, but it can help give a pointer of aprox grit, speed etc.


The pics are magnified 200X, a bit bad focus on the slate, but it just have to do for now.

From what I can see in the pics the difference in the skratch pattern is little, if this is because they are close to eachother or if the slate is slower and needs more strokes is too early to say, more testing is necessary.


Thuringian





Sande slate





Next test will be to see what it will do after a 8K, stay tuned

Last night I did another test with this Sande slate.

I took a Max Sprecher custom that was already shave ready, but just about ready for a small touch-up.
The method used this time around was about 40 circles on moderate slurry followed by 30 x-strokes on refreshed slurry.

After that I did about 40 x-strokes on plain water.
My normal stropping routine was used, no pastes.

The resulting edge felt quite fine, the refresh did improve the edge to a truly shave ready edge again.
This far I don't feel that this will rival the Escher's or the Nakayama's of this world, but a fine little piece of rock it is, nonetheless.
It does cut with a decent speed, and it polishes to a pleasing standard.