Thread: South African Hones....

I had the opportunity to try out the Zulu hone 3 days ago so here are my impressions.
The hone was sent to me by Modine who received it from Sham and now it is in the hands of Geezer.
That hone is getting some miles on it!

I tested the hone on a Filarmonica #14 that has seen a lot of hones so I know that razor very well.
The razor had some minor dings in the edge ( the cat had been playing with it in the bathroom) and had been worked out with a Norton 8k but not shave tested.
The hone was approx 8" x 2" and well prepared. The first impression, based on the feel of my hand was the heft reminded me of a CH12K. The surface felt very smooth and I thought that this will be a slow cutter like the Ch12k.
But I was wrong about that.

I started out by testing the razors edge using the TPT and the HHT.That gave me a base starting point.
The honing proceeded on 50 roundtrip lap increments using only water & no slurry. This hone has good feedback. Much better than the Ch12k.
It seems to be a noticeably faster cutter than the Ch12K. It took 100 laps before I could notice a distinct change in the feel of the edge using the TPT.
I performed a total of 300 rountrip laps on this hone. Afre the 300 lap the edge felt very sharp using the TPT and passed my definition of the HHT.
The next day I stropped it for 50 laps and shaved with the razor.
The first impression was that it gave a "strong" edge and it shaved
very close without being harsh. It was not as smooth as an Escher/Thuri/Coticule and not as crisp/refined as a razor well honed on a Ch12K.
I did like the edge coming right off the hone with just 50 laps on the plain leather strop. If I have to assign a grit rating to it I would say 8000-10,000 range. But, I am also very conservative in my grit ratings.
That being said I will place this hone in the "Finishing grade" category.If a escher/Thuri/Coticule edge is not your cup of tea and the Ch12K is to slow & crisp then you will like this hone.

randydance, if you rate this as a 8-10k stone, what grit do you rate the escher/thuri/coticule as? Thanks for the review.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

I had the opportunity to try out the Zulu hone 3 days ago so here are my impressions.
The hone was sent to me by Modine who received it from Sham and now it is in the hands of Geezer.
That hone is getting some miles on it!

I tested the hone on a Filarmonica #14 that has seen a lot of hones so I know that razor very well.
The razor had some minor dings in the edge ( the cat had been playing with it in the bathroom) and had been worked out with a Norton 8k but not shave tested.
The hone was approx 8" x 2" and well prepared. The first impression, based on the feel of my hand was the heft reminded me of a CH12K. The surface felt very smooth and I thought that this will be a slow cutter like the Ch12k.
But I was wrong about that.

I started out by testing the razors edge using the TPT and the HHT.That gave me a base starting point.
The honing proceeded on 50 roundtrip lap increments using only water & no slurry. This hone has good feedback. Much better than the Ch12k.
It seems to be a noticeably faster cutter than the Ch12K. It took 100 laps before I could notice a distinct change in the feel of the edge using the TPT.
I performed a total of 300 rountrip laps on this hone. Afre the 300 lap the edge felt very sharp using the TPT and passed my definition of the HHT.
The next day I stropped it for 50 laps and shaved with the razor.
The first impression was that it gave a "strong" edge and it shaved
very close without being harsh. It was not as smooth as an Escher/Thuri/Coticule and not as crisp/refined as a razor well honed on a Ch12K.
I did like the edge coming right off the hone with just 50 laps on the plain leather strop. If I have to assign a grit rating to it I would say 8000-10,000 range. But, I am also very conservative in my grit ratings.
That being said I will place this hone in the "Finishing grade" category.If a escher/Thuri/Coticule edge is not your cup of tea and the Ch12K is to slow & crisp then you will like this hone.

Thanks. I'm right with you in your assesment. You do need to do at least 100 laps on this thing for the edge to really pop. That's always been my impression. Of course, Razor grind, Technique, and the condition of the blade being honed comes into play here.

I do a good slurry, and dilute as I go. I finish with 20 laps or so on water.

I do think your a bit conservatie on the grit rating. I would agree with 10-12k. I put it inline with an Escher, which is normally accepted to be in that range. The edges are very comfortable, not harsh at all.
The edges my stone produces do remind me of an Escher, if I had to pick a stone. Nothing like a Coticule, and not like a Jnat. Coti's edge not crisp by a long shot, and Jnats are way too crisp. This is neither.

But it is a good finisher in it's own right. I've done quite a few blades on it, some for customers, and I've had no complaints.

P.S. Coti's are 8k. That's from Ardennes themselves. I'd most definitely agree with that, and we normally accept Escher to be around 10-12k

check this link: http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...mparison_table

Originally Posted by Milkylee

randydance, if you rate this as a 8-10k stone, what grit do you rate the escher/thuri/coticule as? Thanks for the review.

Frankly, I think it is pointless to assign a grit rating. I much prefer to categorize a hone according to the stage of the honing process it functions best in. That why I assigned it to the Finishing class of hones. I do not think that any one stone is best, they are simply different and each user has to try them to find out what suits them the best.

One of the things we try to do here at SRP is to weed out the junk stuff so the new guys don't buy a lemon. The other is to try to list the characteristics of each hone. As an example if someone had told me that it takes hundreds of laps on an Arkansas Translucent then I may have never tried it.
By the same token if a person says a hone only needs 10 laps then I will be most careful when using it. Or if a slurry is necessary, or dilution works well or, or, or.

But directly to your question..... because they vary so much it depends on the individual stone. I just saw 2 hones in the last couple of days. The first was owned by Geezer and was embedded in a wood box. It had the color of a Coticule but also a unique fine pattern somewhat like a "quilting". Then this evening I was at the home of 32T ( Tim Bleed) and he pulled out his hones and one of them was the same but his had a natural BBW on the other side. The hone was quarried on the seam. So, I have not tried either one yet but they were both "shiny". I doubt that they will be the same as the last Coticule I won at auction which is very soft and produces what might be an equivalent of a 6K edge. It is not a finisher. So, grit ratings? No, just define them by what they do.

Just my $.02

The stone arrived today. 1st impressions. 1. Nicely packaged and posting. 2. Very impressed with the wrapping of the stone. Again very professionally done. If it was hand wrapped... I even more impressed. 3. The stone itself. Very well cut and lapped. A very handsome stone.
Looking forward to working with it this week. Thank you, so far very happy that I bought it.

I have been trying out my new Zulu hone and I have to say that I really like it so far. It has given me one of my best edges so far on a new razor I just cleaned up. I find that using slurry is okay but I use very little and then dilute. I agree with the previous posters saying that 100 laps is a minimum if you use slurry. I find that on water alone at least 50 is required. I haven't shaved with this new razor yet so I can't speak to the comfort or keeness of the edge while shaving but if the way arm hair runs away from this edge is any indication then it should be a smooth and easy shave.

OK I finally got my Zulu hone after much issues with the post office! but it arrived yesterday

the packaging was beautiful:


and so is the stone:


I also like how it comes with extra labels to affix to the bottom:


I used my DMT 1200 to make a light slurry:






I had the perfect blade for the experiment. A 5/8 Tonsorial Gem I've been using to see which level some of my hones are at. I started with the Cretan hone to set the bevel and then used a coticule for the next level of sharpening and polishing. Then I put it on my C12K and shaved with it. Very good but not great. And not 12k either. The next day I used my Welsh Thuringian for 80 laps on water and the shave improved. Ok, that's good data.

today I put it on this light slurry with a dilute of one finger drop after 3 sets of circles and then another every 5 X strokes. Then dip the blade in water every 5 until I had done about 50 total laps.

This stone has a great feel to it while honing, very smooth. It came very flat as well and worked very quickly. Super feedback on the slurry OR water.

Then 30 or so X strokes on pure water. Strop tomorrow and see but the leg hairs were falling off silently. Always a good sign.

SHAVE REPORT:

it WAS a good sign,lol. Super smooth, keen edge. First off , it definitely improved the WT edge, by a far margin. This very hollow, thin blade always makes a lot of 'noise' when it shaves but with the Zulu edge it was much quieter and shaved much easier than yesterday, or ever.
20 laps on linen and 40 laps on English bridle and it was good to go. Basically a one pass shave. Definitely good enough for a Sunday at home but I am very impressed with this stone, already.

As I was with the edges it produced on the blades Stefan honed for me. This is a STEAL for this stone. SO glad I have my own now.

Hoping mine will show by this tuesday, we are having a mini-meet

WOW. Just finished test shaving three blades I honed on the Zulu and I continue to not only be impressed but amazed. All three responded the same; with silky smooth sharp edges. About 100 total laps and the interesting thing I've noticed is that this is very much like a coticule edge in it's smoothness and forgiveness to the skin. It doesn't want to bite you much at all but it gets way sharper than my coticule edge gives me. Very interesting.
Here's a write up on my Wacker, Flaschner and 1956 Russian tests:
Steel and Stone.: Zulu vs Wacker 1/4 Hollow, Flaschner 5/8

While I'm still learning and have relatively limited experience when it comes to comparing finishers, I finally had a chance to test my Zulu Grey yesterday and posted my thoughts in the SOTD thread. In short - I'm *very* impressed!

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shave...ml#post1070467