Thread: South African Hones....

My 8x2 Zulu test stone arrived from Alaska/aka Don today in the mail, so far I only lapped the bottom side as the top looked fine, I just wanted to get an idea of the feel from lapping with the DMT 325 like every other stone I have tested or own...

Impresions so far

Hardness - by fingernail test done all in a row one right after another
in comparison to

Blu/Green Escher = Harder than
Vintage Thuringen = Harder than
Puple WHIG = To close to call
Green Whig = Maybe softer than really close
BBW = Could be brothers
Charnley Forest = Softer than
Chinese PHIG = Harder than

Impression of the slurry produced while lapping = nice milky and a soft feel that I like

I have at least 4 razors to hone which I won't get to until tomorrow morning... Got date night with the wifey tonight

Another 36 hour growth mown down by a Dovo stainless finished on the Zulu Grey! WOW! The sharpest and smoothest shave I ever gotten from those Dovo stainless steel razor. I have two of them, I started shaving with my first, almost year ago. A little later, after some thoughts and suggestions from here, I decided to buy a second one with life time honing from SRP. One has always been my control razor, the one I compare the others to. It has served me well. The first stainless Dovo, became my first attempt at honing, early this year . Although I was able to get a sharp and smooth edge, it has never been as sharp as my control, until today.

After going to the 16K Shapton with slury (35 passes), then doing 3 sets of 15 circles with 15 X strokes with slury diluted to just water, for a total of 90 passes on the Zulu. Just like Zib did early on this thread. The razor gave me one of the smoothes, closest and comfortable shaves I ever had with any razor and the two pass shave produced about 97-98% BBS which I finished with very little touch ups and had hardly any sting from the alum (tip of chin and under the right jaw line (where I cought myself using too much pressure)). Yes, I'm a believer! I prayed for an Escher and got a Zulu, God is good!

Next I think I'm taking my star razor, a solingen F.W.E. that was honed by Jimmy Had and finished on an Escher, that until today was the sharpest, smoothest razor I had (past tense). It is and has been a 2 smooth pass for a 98% BBS razor. Double O

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Blu/Green Escher = Harder than
Vintage Thuringen = Harder than
Puple WHIG = To close to call
Green Whig = Maybe softer than really close
BBW = Could be brothers
Charnley Forest = Softer than
Chinese PHIG = Harder than

Glen, if you have the opportunity to, can you do a direct comparison in the finish this stone provides to the other stones mentioned? specifically the Purple WHIG as this is the stone I use as a finisher.

Great information - thanks for all the efforts. I was wondering - someone in this thread volunteered to photograph the Zulu-Greys edge and share it? Any luck? The razor I honed with it is going strong - I am very pleased. Great results and easy to use.

You guys are killing me!!! Mine still hasn't arrived. Hope the 'boat' is ok!

Originally Posted by jeffzeitlin

...I was wondering - someone in this thread volunteered to photograph the Zulu-Greys edge and share it?...

From the original piece of hone that started this entire following.

Here you go guys. This is a Dovo's edge that I honed on my Zulu Grey. This one is Mike's original rectangular Zulu Grey hone that I'm still testing for him.

400 X Magnification. I tried to get the light along the edge to see different reflection angles in the same photo.

First test on a Dovo, Bizmarck,,

Chosera 1k, Henckels (naniwa) 1-3-8, Zulu stone

20 Pigtail Laps with light slurry, 20 laps dilution to clear water, 20+ clear water laps... Very nice edge under the loupe and a great feel on the stone,, Test shave later tonight

First thoughts,,,

Three razors done, all three Solingens, I did a test shave with the Dovo Bismarck tonight, and was rewarded with a close comfortable shave, I would lean toward the close a tiny bit more with this edge..

The other two will be test shaved tomorrow, and I will do two of my personal razors, one Henckels 8/8 Friodur and a Fila #14 DT


The stone is a finisher by my rather simple definition "Does it improve on a Synthetic 8k edge" beyond that there is way to much YMMV involved plus the fact that different steels react to different stones that react to different faces...

The stone is very simple and straight forward and honestly I liked the feel, I used the side lapped with a well used DMT 325 and a light slurry made with about 5 figure 8 strokes 20-20-20 dilution... One of the other razors was done on the smoother lapped side and just a clear water finish 20 laps...

The slurry has a talc feel to it that I like while honing, and it dilutes out very well... The smooth side and just water felt much like my CF I would like to try maybe some Smith's on it next, and see how that feels...

So far I like the stone.

Thanks for the photo of the edge - It looks like my results as well.

Snipped and cut...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

First thoughts,,,

Three razors done, all three Solingens, I did a test shave with the Dovo Bismarck tonight, and was rewarded with a close comfortable shave, I would lean toward the close a tiny bit more with this edge..

The other two will be test shaved tomorrow, and I will do two of my personal razors, one Henckels 8/8 Friodur and a Fila #14 DT

So far I like the stone.

I wonder if my razor was one of the lucky ones to get the Zulu treatment?

Would this be a hone that you would consider recommending to a person that would be new to honing?