Thread: Norwegian slate

Sounds like everyone had a good time. Please, no Vestfold Thuringia threads LOL.
Mike

Okay, I've lapped mine, and a few things comes to mind immediately:

- It's quite soft, lapping went very fast

- The color and grain is very equal to my Dragons Tongue.

- It builds up slurry very fast and the slurry looks a lot like the one from the DT

These initial signs make me think it is a slate in the same area as the Welsh Dragons Tongue, my DT it out on loan at the moment, but as soon as I get it back I will do some comparing, in the meantime I'll see what it is capable to do

New update tomorrow

Originally Posted by MODINE

Sounds like everyone had a good time. Please, no Vestfold Thuringia threads LOL.
Mike

Agreed, we don't need no more confusing names. With this in mind, I decided to name mine a Vestfhuringan.

I decided to do my testing on a Heljestrand Mk 4. (presumably somewhat harder steel, hollow ground). I set the bevel on a chosera 1k, did naniwa 3k, and then on to the slate. Medium slurry some 25 laps, diluted to medium light slurry 25 laps, then 25 on very light slurry. Cleaned stone, 25 laps on water and finally finished w 25 laps on clean stone and glycerin. Stropped 10 linen, 60 leather. I did not want to overdo on the stropping, just what I usually do to better compare to other hones.

The shave was nice. Clean and sharp, cuts well, no pulling on atg. I am pleasantly surprised at the smoothness. I'd venture on a guess at grit just yet but so far it looks like it might be useable as a finisher. I intend to test it against the welsh slates and see how it holds up against those, starting with the DT.

Oh, and I really am thrilled to have found a norwegian hone that might be useable, that is so much fun

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

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

Did another test of the new hone today.
I used the same razor for both hones, a C. V. Heljestrand Mk 4. It was shave ready from yesterday. I attempted to test it against a dragon's tongue.

On both hones, I first did 50 laps on water (no slurry) to redial, then 25 on glycerin to set the appropriate edge. I then stropped 10 linen and 50 leather before shaving both times. First I applied the dragon't tongue, and shaved half my face wtg, reapplied lather and then went atg, one pass each, no touchup. I then rehoned to the norwegian slate, rinsed my face and reapplied lather to eliminate lather dryout affecting the test, then shaved the opposite with the edge from the norwegian slate, wtg, reapplied lather, then atg, no touchup.

I was meticulous about beard prep before I started, as I wanted to minimize effect of different beard prep between the sides. I prepped my entire face for 10 minutes plus before I started the test, first with water, then with lather. I think this should suffice to achieve maximum beard swelling even for the first side.

My findings: Both hones gave a very nice wtg shave, and removed most of the hair in one pass. Against the grain showed some difference, the dragon's tongue gave a little pull or discomfort, whereas the norwegian slate still felt smooth. I finished my shave there, no touchup on either side.
I rinsed off the lather and applied my high-alcohol splash. Both sides were fine, no horror show from either side, but still significantly more burn on the DT shaved side, almost none from the other.
30 minutes after the shave, the skin has had a little time to dry and the beard has dried out, checked for stubble. There is more stubble on the DT shaved side than on norwegian slate side, although both has little and only atg. Still, significantly more on the first side.

Verdict: It seems to me the norwegian slate has the DT trumped. Of cource, there is a chance my test was flawed, although I did my best to reduce the differences. I'll test it against the Llyn Mellynllyn tomorrow, time permitting.

Originally Posted by str8fencer

Did another test of the new hone today.
I used the same razor for both hones, a C. V. Heljestrand Mk 4. It was shave ready from yesterday. I attempted to test it against a dragon's tongue.





My findings: Both hones gave a very nice wtg shave, and removed most of the hair in one pass. Against the grain showed some difference, the dragon's tongue gave a little pull or discomfort, whereas the norwegian slate still felt smooth. I finished my shave there, no touchup on either side.
I rinsed off the lather and applied my high-alcohol splash. Both sides were fine, no horror show from either side, but still significantly more burn on the DT shaved side, almost none from the other.


Verdict: It seems to me the norwegian slate has the DT trumped. Of cource, there is a chance my test was flawed, although I did my best to reduce the differences. I'll test it against the Llyn Mellynllyn tomorrow, time permitting.

Very nice detailed review and test, now you guys need to go back and buy the whole bucket of these hones and share them with us!