Yet another hone I.D thread

[Piet]

Congrats on your find. You can leave low spots like that when they're at the ends or edges. It does help if you can easily see the spot once it's lapped so you can avoid it when honing.

Personally I would remove it from the box first (in the oven at 150°C). It makes lapping a bit easier and you will be able to bevel the edges. You will also be able to hone with the stone in your hand which I prefer.

[adrspach]

It is quite common to find these stones in jyst a thin flake form. If you want to taky it out and properly clean it then often tapping it out on the edge of your wrist does the trick. Otherwise just stick it to oven as Piet described,

[EisenFaust]

I haven't been able to attempt removing it from its box (my oven is broken would you believe) but I did go back and start lapping again from low to high grit (180 - 1000) so the final depression has been removed. I must have some how torqued it as the grid was not being removed evenly the second time around. All fine now however.

Have just tried it for the first time with three drops of sewing machine oil - I gave my vintage LeGrelot 'Royal Canada' 100 pressureless laps on the CF. Am about to test shave the edge.

How have others used their CF's?

[Scipio]

I haven't used mine for a while, but I use water. I find oil messy but did in fact find it gives a better edge, but not superior enough to justify cleaning up the oil. I've also used it with lather in the past which worked nicely.

I've found that the better Charnleys give excellent edges while some give merely satisfactory edges. I just find them too slow compared to Thuringians so never use them anymore.

[MODINE]

If your stone is similar to mine, 30 passes with oil will show marked improvement of the edge. Stain “less” steel razors respond well on this stone. It does tend to leave a bit toothy or serrated edge. This can be smoothed with passes on leather strop or Chromium oxide treated strop.

To clean, d-limonene hand wipes will cut the oil and will not harm the novaculite. Then wipe with damp cloth. This is one way, there are other methods. I hope this helps some.
MIke

[roughkype]

Modine--I love that handwipe idea--thank you.

EisenFaust--I use mine (which I bought from Scipio) with very slightly soapy water. I just keep a detergent bottle that has something like two drops of detergent to one cup of water. That helps the water spread out over the stone, which is otherwise too shiny and nonporous to keep an evenly wet coat. I also run a fairly high lap count--maybe 50 or 60. If I lose count, then I hone until the water's gone. I start with as much water as you can evenly spread over the surface in a single finger pass.

Another fellow I've talked to on the site tinkered with different viscosity oils to provide different amounts of cushion between blade and hone--but I think he took the advanced course. Most of the folks who use oil use really thin oil, like sewing machine or even gun oil. I've met one guy who raises a slurry on his CF, but I don't think that's standard operating procedures. Maybe some other folks will chime in about that. I've never honed on slurry from mine.

I agree with Modine about the toothiness the CF puts on a stainless blade. I don't mix the two any more, myself.

Have fun experimenting with yours!

Best wishes