Thread: South African Hones....

Yes, These stones are quite hard. I think my friend Mainaman will appreciate that....

If you were so inclined, You could use it with the Asano Nagura's, crox, or diamond liquid.

I probably already mentioned this, if I use it with slurry, I've been using an Atoma 1200 to create it.

This is a request for PM from the distributor of the Zulu Grey. I've attempted PM, but have no record of it in sent items. Thanks much.

Originally Posted by regularjoe

This is a request for PM from the distributor of the Zulu Grey. I've attempted PM, but have no record of it in sent items. Thanks much.

Did you set up your settings to send a copy of your PMs in the sent folder?

Stay tuned for my REVIEW of the Zulu Grey hone

I got the stones yesterday and had a chance to test ona razor, here is my initial review.

Pics first:

The stone comes in a very nice packaging, frankly I wonder how Mike was able to get those edges so perfectly straight on that wrapper..
Included are also 3 different colored sticker labels, like the one on the wrapper, and a red/black lettering on white background.





Great attention to detail that really makes one feel they bought a special product.

The stone I got is 10x3x1", the two sides are different in features, one is gray with white speckilng, the other side is with brownish stripe running trough the face.

Pics I show are of the wet stone as well as slurry. The slurry is light gray on the clean side and slight cream on the brown feature side.





Mike said that the stone was lapped and it was pretty flat. So I immediately put a razor on it to test, I used one of my razors - LeGrelot P Hospital. I reset the finish of the razor on a 10k Super Stone then proceeded with my usual routine of honing on naturals, light slurry diluted to water. The stone felt it has a lot of feedback, the bevels under magnification did not look super refined but definitely improved the 10k scratches. Test was with no stropping or bear prep and felt like 8-10k.

So I looked at the stone more carefully and realized that even if it was lapped it was not smooth enough. This is not a knock of any kind, I never expect new stones to be even lapped when I get them.

I got my granite plate and started relapping the stone to make sure it is done the way I like it, I used sand paper 220,320,400,600,1500 and then a well worn DMT 1200 . The stone was a bear to redo, but after the DMT it became like a glass smooth on the surface, it has the brightest reflection I have seen on a natural so far.
I redid the razor on 10k SS then back to the Zulu Gray on slurry then water and tested with no stropping, the stone leaves bright mirror finish. The result was very surprising, the edge felt very sharp but not harsh almost did not need stropping. I stropped on leather only to see how the edge will change and of coarse it got better, very sharp but very smooth.

We do not know if there is big variations in quality from stone to stone, but this has a great potential as a very very good finishing stone, in the same category as Escher, may be even as good as a Jnat in terms of finishing an edge. I'll be using this stone extensively for a little bit and get back with more impressions, I am impressed and optimistic about the Zulu Gray.

Stefan,

What did you use to raise a slurry?

Originally Posted by Milkylee

Stefan,

What did you use to raise a slurry?

1.2k DMT, I'll try some hard naturals next time and see how that works out.

Great review Stefan. THanks for the info! I hope I can pick one of these up before prices get too inflated. I just have to get the $$ put aside which is hard with my 1 year old son, doberman, expensive italian wife (not mail order) and smoking habit