Thread: Where are folks getting the good Guangxi (CNAT) hones?

A Guangxi from Woodcraft was the first natural finishing stone I purchased a while back now and it turned out to be very soft and a dud for razors (will dull the edge off a 8K Norton). Having aquired a stable of many various natural hones since then, I find myself wanting to go back and give these hones another try and see what people like about them. Is there a source for Guangxi hones that have been tested, or are of the harder, razor-quality variety? Are the ones from the Polish seller on ebay good? Or is the only way to find a good one to buy a bunch and test them all?

Cnats is a lot like a lottery, sometimes you are lucky and get a good one, while other times you will only get a decent one, or simply a bad one, you never know.
I bought one from the mentioned seller and was lucky and got a good one, others have bought several stones before getting a stone usable for razor finishing.

Could you post some photos of your stone? I've never heard of one that was soft before, and I wonder what it looks like.

I'll try to post up some pics later, but it's a very uniform light gray and about as soft as a Thuringian. I knew something was up when I read about guys lapping theirs for a really long time and this one only took a few minutes.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...nese-hone.html

Some info from awhile back

One thing to be wary of is the Grit numbers these range from 8k-15k+ now personally as soon as I see a grit rating I start laughing..

Does it improve a "Shave Ready" edge ??? ie: someting at about the 8k level, is it scratchy??? other than that I really don't care...

I got lucky and only had to buy three of them to get one of the good ones.

Originally Posted by Theseus

I got lucky and only had to buy three of them to get one of the good ones.

You beat me, I had to buy 4

Also I think one of the ones I didn't like back then might have been ok if I had considered switching it to an Oil style stone instead of a water stone,,

Matt, sorry to hear you got a bad PHIG. I got my PHIG from Woodcraft also. It's a great hone, sometimes I finish with it instead of my Shapton 16000.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Matt, sorry to hear you got a bad PHIG. I got my PHIG from Woodcraft also. It's a great hone, sometimes I finish with it instead of my Shapton 16000.

Think they'd mind if I ordered maybe 5 and returned 4?

I sold one to jaswarb, I thought it was a good one. Woodcraft sent it to me because I asked a question on an open forum about them when they first came out.

It was far better than the other one I bought off of ebay.