Thread: South African Hones....

Just a fast note. Tried the stone on 2 razors over the week. Used as a finisher. ~75 on each. Then finished on felt and leather. Nice clean shave with both.

I would say that for the money this stone will give you the most real estate to hone on and the keenest edge possible. Very good value and very good stone!

Well Gents my time with the Borrowed Zulu ended last night as the stone is heading home to Don up in Alaska today.. many thanks for letting me run with it sir

I did 8 razors on it last night which makes probably just over 100 different razors total on the the stone for me.. (I think I kept pretty close count)


Some thoughts

Near every razor was finished after either a Norton 1-4-8 or a Henckels (naniwa ss)1-3-8 progression
After messing around with Smith's honing solution on a very smoothly lapped side vs water and a (well worn) DMT 325 and light slurry on the other side I found that I liked the slurry finish better after about 50 razors.
All but 2 of the razors honed were for customers, I received no bad responses, I received a few WOW responses
All the WOW responses were from water and slurry honing
I averaged about 60 laps on the Zulu, I tried less I tried way more that is where I found my comfort zone (this doesn't really mean much to anyone else)
I did not really do many Sheffield Razors on the Zulu I felt the edge was better for them using my Coticule
I was finally down to doing only 5-10 laps with clear water after the slurry, that seemed to give a very silky edge
I will most likely be adding my own Zulu to the collection after the 1st of the year
It will be just that, an addition to the collection it will not be replacing any stone or hone I currently have.
As you can see I shy away from comparisons even after over 100 razors honed
I also shy away from giving Natural stones a grit rating, This stone is a finisher however

A good solid stone with a really nice feel while honing and a smooth comfortable edge to the face...



Thanks again to Don aka Alaska for sending his Zulu stone for me to check out (if you read closely above, you will realize that he ended up with two fully lapped sides of the stone to use though LOL)

Glen thank you for the indepth look at these stones. All users posts here will go along way toward giving the members who
want to try the Zulu Stones a degree of comfort in making their respective decisions. I thought this entire process of evaluation was very well done.
And to Michael who has done all the heavy lifing with these stones and stood behind them you have earned my eternal gratitude for your fair minded handling of this process. Thank you and I wish you every success.

I have been playing with my Zulu hone, comparing the finish on slurry, watery slurry and water. Then I thought it would be interesting to try a finish using my Escher blue green slurry stone on the zulu and dilute to water. Used my prized Revisor 6/8" which already had a very nice finish to it. let's see whether this advances it or not.

SHAVE REPORT:

actually not that much better, if at all, than the zulu edge with it's own slurry. interesting in it's own right.A very keen but smooth edge and an easy shave. Still lots to figure out with this stone.

Hey-la-day-la Mr. Grey's arrived! After an impatient 2 months my Zulu Grey has finally arrived. And I am on vacation between Christmas and New Year!

"Honey, are you going to be playing with your razors all week?"

Of course, I couldn't wait until the weekend to try my eagerly awaited hone. Last night I used on a couple of 5/8 Solingen razors. Both already in very good shape, shaving nicely. Their earlier edge came from finishing with Chinese 12k and some Dovo paste on balsa. I started them over on 20-30 laps on the 12kc, or until they felt like they were gliding very smoothly. Then I moved on to the ZG with water. It was clear they didn't glide quite as smoothly on that. After a couple of dozen laps they suddenly started sliding much more smoothly, while at the same time kind of almost sucking to the surface. When that happened I went another couple of dozen laps. Prior to shaving I gave them 60 round trips on a very slick old horse shell strop. Interesting to note is that until now, all my carefully sharpened have made a slightly scratchy sound, maybe not sound, a bit of a friction feeling on that strop. Now there was absolutely no sensation of anything uneven. Just a smooth, slick sliding back and forth.

Yes, they both shaved beautifully. Thanks again MichaelC for making these hones available.

Well, my Zulu Grey arrived a couple of hours ago. The wrapping/packaging was top notch. Yea, I used the stone already but before I comment I would advise to take what I say with a huge grain of salt not having a vast amount of skill/time in honing razors.

Used a DD Goldedge this morning and it gave a fine enough shave but I thought it was on the verge of needing a touch up. It was initially finished on a Naniwa 12000 followed by laps on a Crox pasted Balsa strop. I did not lap the hone prior to use just whetted it and did sets of 20 X strokes wetting the hone in between sets for a total of 80 X strokes. I did not strop the razor but shaved directly off the hone.

My initial impression of the shave the edge gave was that it was smoother and slightly sharper than what I could get off the Naniwa 12000 and pasted strop. While honing the razor just glided across the hone very smoothly. I like the feel of it. Really too early to say anything other than I am not disappointed in the least with my purchase and feel it has good potential for the future.

Thank you Mike.

Bob

Mine came in the mail last night. I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's the 8x3 size. The surface on it looks to be near optical polish, which should make it easy to start with it in finest-possible mode.

Unfortunately, I don't have any razors that need to be honed. The silk-finish vintage linen on one of my strops has made it so that my razors don't seem to get dull. I would love to find another of those NOS.

I think the stone is very nice, though, and it's got much more surface area than my 1/2 inch thick escher for between 1/2 and 1/3rd of the price (I have an escher that's got some physical problems and it wasn't as expensive as most).

I look forward to using this stone, I did run a junk razor across it just to get the feel, and with the surface polish, it's very smooth.

Touched up a modern Revisor last night in the same manner I did the DD and added 10 laps on a Crox pasted balsa strop. The Revisor was already shaving well but this mornings shave with it, after stropping on felt and leather, took it up another notch. Smooth like budda. This hone is starting to look very promising for me. Next razor in rotation for tomorrows shave will get a touch up beforehand also to keep checking the results.

Bob