Thread: South African Hones....

My Silvein is about the coolest looking natural i have n is a great pre-polisher

No offense intended, but I LIKE to call them zebra stones/hones, because thats what they reminded me of when you first posted pictures of them. And I STILL hope to one day purchase one simply because of how pretty they are. If only I could get myself to stop spending money on my RAD!

Originally Posted by MichaelC

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The part of SA that I'm in is called KwaZulu - which means 'place of the Zulus'... and this form of shale is very much unique to these parts.

Anyways, just thought I'd say hi and add something to this thread. I'll take some more pictures of the 'Zulu Gray' I've lapped and am working with myself - just to add some more pictures.

Cheers,
- Mike

Given its provenance i think "Zulu Gray" is a good name for this stone!

Let's not forget about hone 1 and 2... they are also hones of a very very high standard Mike. I'm getting great shave ready edges from both of them also. You've really done very well in your search for good natural stone.

"Zulu Grey".. you do speak english right? south africa has not become a state of the usa has it?

What ever its called "zulu grey", "Mandela hone" or South Africa Thuringian I WANT one!

Originally Posted by ezpz

"Zulu Grey".. you do speak english right? south africa has not become a state of the usa has it?

No, well of of course it's 'Zulu Grey' we do speak proper English here in SA But the alternate spelling is for our friends who speak 'that other english'

- Mike

Hi Guys,
As promised here are some nice clear shots of the 'Zulu Grey' that I've been using. You'll notice the stone has this lovely fine speckling which sort of reminds me of a close up view of some tams and other scotch hones, but there is also this orange figuring (iron oxide perhaps?) that you can see. The crack isn't really a crack at all, it's just like you see in some coticules - it's a fine natural line in the stone, I've seen this also on a few Jnats, nonetheless the whole surface is completely (glass) smooth, I just couldn't capture the glasslike reflection in the surface of the stone... but I lapped this one right up to 1500grit water paper, and it basically feels like marble to the touch.
It's quite hard, and it's a bit slow to release the milky white slurry. The slurry has that very earthy smell similar but different to the smell of a thuringian.

Well I'm a fan of nice daylight images - so hope you all enjoy

Thanks for sharing Michael, beautiful stone for sure. Is this stone fragile in nature? is that why it is cut so thick?

Originally Posted by Martin103

Thanks for sharing Michael, beautiful stone for sure. Is this stone fragile in nature? is that why it is cut so thick?

Hi Martin,
No not at all, the stone is very dense and heavy - it would be easily strong enough to hold it's own if it was a thinner cut.
I simply had them cut like this as that is the thickness of the raw slab and it was just easier to have the diamond blade cut blocks out without having to further cut those blocks in half... (though that is exactly what I will do the next time around).

Cheers,
- Mike