Thread: South African Hones....

Originally Posted by MichaelC

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to pop in again to say I'm working hard on prepping existing orders as well as future-proofing my readiness for new orders.
I wanted to post a few pics of what I was doing this weekend - I've been rough cutting a whole bunch of new material, as well as chamfering a batch of soon to be shipped stones. You can see in the image below that what I do is clamp each stone in an old heavy-duty mill vise, and then I use a large file to cut in the chamfers on each side.. painstaking doesn't begin to describe it And when you're looking at like 25 stones at a time waiting to be prepped, it's tiring work to be sure.
The rough cuts on my bench there you can see are all mostly hone shaped - just very large and very rough. Some of them have very nice figuring in the stone, which as I understand it is the result of organic material like seaweed etc. being encased over time in the stone.. (This bench is just a very small portion of the supply I have..)

- I'm working on stamping the sides of my hones with the ZG logo and text in a white ink, for hones that have a rough backing where a label won't be easy to apply. Actually I may just stamp all future hones like this and instead just supply an information card with each stone instead of the adhesive labels...

Thanks guys,
- Mike.

Do you sell rocks with the natural skin backing cause that's how i prefill my sharpening stones.

I would recommend all talks about sales & the such be done via pm...this is too good a thread to loose.

Originally Posted by Suile

Do you sell rocks with the natural skin backing cause that's how i prefill my sharpening stones.

PM me with specific questions on sales etc. as Scott has rightfully advised.

But regarding the aesthetics of natural stones, including the Zulu Grey, do guys here prefer the orange natural 'skin' to be retained on the underside/sides of my stones - or is it preferred to have a clean cut block much like the Thuringians or Coticules? Because I can go either way with my hones..

In truth, I feel there are more similarities between my ZG hones and Jnats (geologically), than there exist between them and Thuringians, so I'm seriously thinking of retaining even a hint of the orange iron oxide skin as part of the stones' aesthetics. It will certainly be easier than having to perfectly sculpt all sides of the stone. But my fear is that I create confusion between my hones and Jnats.. Which I really don't want to do. I'd like my hones to have their own personality... and with the skin they certainly do look an awful lot like some Jnats.

Apologies, just thinking out loud here..

- Mike.

Good point Mike,

You know mine has a small spot of orange skin on the back. It doesn't interfere with honing, if I wanted to use it. I can actually use all four sides. The original test hones were rectangular, 9x2x2, pretty much.

It was odd when I saw pics of guys adhering labels to what looked like the working end of the stone, but I now know your cutting them that way. I'm sure most would prefer two clean working sides or four in some cases. Glen mentioned using oil on one side of the stone, and water on the other. That's a nice option.

I use the side with orange skin with water and back is labeled because I don't like use oil on honing session.
I believe the orange skin side is more attractive and could be a id sign for the future.

I personally kind of like the idea of it having a bit of skin left on the stone but I'm good either way. I love the figuring in some of those stones. It would be amazing luck to get one of those. Thanks for all your hard work.

Guys I just wanted to clarify what I mean by the 'skin' on my stones. I see now that you guys may be confusing the orange 'stains' in the stone for what I'm calling the skin, but I realise it's because of course I've removed the skin before sending any stones so you haven't seen it properly

I'm talking about the outer orange layer - and it is frighteningly similar to some images of a Nakayama Asagi I just googled.
So I wanted to show some comparison images of my Zulu Grey hones with this Asagi I just found. I wish I was a geologist so I could properly understand the similarity, but it's quite apparent visually. At I'm so pleased that my hones are even in the same conversation with natural finishing stones like some of the Jnats. I'm almost certain geologically the stones are cousins...

Here are some Zulu Grey hones with the orange skin:





And here are images of a Nakayama Asagi and the back of a Karasu stone:

Double post..

Now I understand, you mean leave rough side , but i prefer finished on every side.
Thanks for clarify.

Maybe like in pic 2 is not bad.

I'd like to see Lynn Abrams test one of these since he probably hones more razors in a month than all of us hone in a lifetime. I have been testing Double0's zulu and so far it seems pretty good. I read one fellow who recommended oil and I won't go there since it is not my hone. Still messing with it with water and slurry .... diluting and all of that. So far the shaves are nice.