Thread: slurry

I am just wondering how necessary slurry is. For example can you achieve the same edge with or without slurry by simply putting in more time? Perhaps I'm asking the wrong question. What exactly does raising a slurry do while honing?

For example if a stone is 8k in grit, with slurry become 6k or less, and smothness of shave is not same between 6k or 8k.
More fine is the stone ,much fine is the smothness. Slurry increase only the speed but not performance.

Depends on what stone you are using. Some naturals benefit from a slurry, because it speeds things up, sometimes they don't. Synthetic stones generally don't need slurry, because they have a nice speed without it, but the 1k stones and under benefit from it if you have to remove a lot of metal. So the answer would be it depends.

I suspect you want to use a coticule without slurry, to reduce the variables. In that case, that won't work With clear water, it will be slow to do anything to a razor that is not shave-ready.

As the gentlemen said above, it usually decreases the grit of the stone, and increases its speed. In almost all cases you can feel it. The BBW is a stone that works only with slurry. Without it, it's finer but very very slowto the point of almost useless.
And, the use of slurry can help you skip some steps in the honing process. if you start from a 1k stone, you can go to a 8-10k natural. It regularly would take hours to reach the 10k edge, but slurry can speed up the procedure, until you finish it with plain water. And in some, after that, with thin oil. The thicker the slurry, the faster and coarser the results. Then you can dilute it, or just wash the stone and continue with plain water. When we say 8k stone, especially with naturals, it means it should be around 8k with plain water. With thin slurry, it might be 6k, with thick slurry 4k, with oil, 10k. One stone to cover the 4k-10k range of grits. Slurry is definitely useful, just a little messy and it might take time to raise it.

Slurry cannot possibly change the grit rating of the stone in a big way unless you dig at the stone with a coarse medium & have large particles floating around. It does increase the cutting speed to match a slightly coarser stone & it also gives a slightly less sharp edge due to the slurry dulling effect... generally speaking... with synthetics.
With naturals it depends on the individual stone..
You need to try both, with & without & combinations thereof to establish your own answer with your stones .

No. You don't have to use slurry. There was a gentleman on here that used to say: "Use a lower grit". It just takes longer, that's all. 8k is still 8k, 4k is still 4k, etc... Natural stones do not need slurry either, For example, The Charnley Forest hone. (Yes, I know it's used with oil) That's just one. Even Coticules and BBW's can be used without slurry, as a finisher. Some Cotis are so soft, they generate their own slurry. Lot's of guys buy them thinking, "I only need one hone" and quickly find out, that's not really true. It really depends on what your trying to do. Slurry will increase the speed at which a stone removes metal, nothing more. It cannot change the grit of a stone.

What we are calling grit has nothing to do with their actual grit. And, I disagree with the fact that it can't lower the "grit". You can use the slurry of a coticule for bevel setting. The slurry of a C12k speeds up things a lot but the scratch pattern it leaves and the sharpness with or without slurry have big difference. Without slurry, when you hone, the blade touches only the higher part of the abrasive particles it comes in contact with, limited penetration in the steel, and abrasion. With slurry, whole particles are moving between the steel and stone surface. for such a small surface of each whole particle, high pressure is applied, and it goes deeper into the blade. The kind of scratch a lower grit stone would offer. There are some stones that we don't use them with slurry, and a few like the eschers that with or without slurry there is no big difference. But generally, a stone with slurry cuts deeper than without.

you got some great advice here lol...take it in enjoy!

Originally Posted by sleekandsmooth

you got some great advice here lol...take it in enjoy!

Yes I did. Thank you very much you guys. This is why I love this site, I can ask a question and get a pool of knowledge that would take quite a while to get through experience. Thanks again.

Slurry is a variable, and there is no right answer,,, it is the ultimate YMMV part of this hobby

It depends on the Stone/Hone and and how you made the slurry, most every statement made so far is true, and then again, not true depending on the variables involved...

You need to add slurry when you feel comfortable using it, and confident in your own abilities to realize what is going on with it...