Thread: Lemurs Rocks!

Originally Posted by HNSB

Any neutral gray will allow for software adjustment of white balance. If there's any color hue present in the gray, it can be adjusted out. I've had better luck sampling grays than whites.

Yeah they're fine, but grey cards aren't always color-neutral. They are usually close enough, but not made for the purpose of setting digital white balance.

But even perfect white balance references are a bit of a crapshoot in various kinds of mixed light.

Hmm, but it would still be good for reference?

Originally Posted by Lemur

Hmm, but it would still be good for reference?

Not significantly better than a sheet of lower-brightness copy paper. Most are fine, but I've run into several grey cards that were obviousy not color-neutral.

I've used grey cards in a pinch, but they're not an ideal tool unless specifically made to be color-neutral.

The spectral response of your light source (if using indoor light), the viewing media, and the eyes of others are likely to all be limiting factors. White balance is just one issue to contend with.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Unless you know the material is coming from a slagheap for a fact don't use such a derogatory term. Don't disparage a vendor's mdse. If you want to discuss performance and physical qualities just do it without the negative associations.

Not suer where negative associations came from.
Just to point out second word in my reply is guess. And as time goes I can say educated guess as I and few of my friends asked the vendor about origin of the hones/material. There would be appropriate to use derogatory term for quality of those answers.
Dictionary says "Slag heap"- In quarrying- term used for a hillock of disposed waste material from quarrying. Nothing about derogatory term. Not sure how you translate "slag heap in in Bethesda" to Welsh language but I am sure it is not "Reclamation yard in Bethesda" which is term used by vendor to answer when people asked where is the material from. I was nicely laughed at by my friends (who live in Bethesda) when I asked them about the reclamation yard where you can get slate. Once you would be there you will know why.
Here you have picture and you can find all colours of slate there as it was quarried from different depths.
53.170084,-4.059191 (Welsh Slate) - Google Maps

In any of my previous replies about these hones I did not deny that they can be decent hones. I only do not like when established names of hones and knowledge about them is being marginalised by the vendor for his commercial gain.

Would you call the car in the link bellow Ferrari just because it came from a car manufactory, it is red and has a horse in it?
Google Image Result for http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/9466/farari13wc.jpg

Testing done of the AJs!
At least some testing, it will take a while to learn them thoroughly.
I'm still a little confused about their names, I'll call them Purple, Black and Green.

The Purple; Initially I found it scratchy, that came down to it being in bad need of a lapping.
Now I get every razor and tool steel I've tried on it hair popping sharp.
Light slurry and a light hand did the trick.

The Black; Initially it felt kind of good, not as smooth and fine as my Thuringen but not bad,
same here, a little slurry and a light hand gave nice edges, close match to the Thuringen.

The Green; Strange stone, water only and it feels like a sand stone and very scratchy.
With a heavier slurry it completely different, the bevel looks like that from a jnat and gets the razor pretty sharp but can still not get a really good edge.
I'll keep playing with them tho.

I feel a good Thuringen to be much easier and more forgiving to use, but these are not in any way bad stones if you take the time to learn them.
The Escher and Jnat finishers can still run circles around them!

Originally Posted by Lemur

The Escher and Jnat finishers can still run circles around them!

Yeah I like AJ's stones just fine, but something tells me that they're going to be sitting dormant for a while now that I have my JNAT...the edges I've been getting from my JNAT have been good...like, reeeaaallly good....

I've got the welsh trio from AJ and just bought a 'thuringian' from him, not one of his welsh thuringians, and it was worth every penny. I've got two jnats, nakayama maruichi kiita/asagi, ozuku mizu asagi, vintage srd natural bbw/yellow coticule combo. The nice thing about having multiple finishers is that, depending on the steel/grind of the razor as well as what I feel like honing on, I can achieve incredible edges.

I just finished honing a 13/16 pre 1895 Wade and Butcher Extra Hollow and finished it on the "Green Thuringian" he sold me and it was nothing short of a smooth shave that was keener than the coticule edge. 3 passes plus some touchups due to stupid directional hair growth and my alcohol based aftershave barely burnt.

AJ is also a great communicator and is always willing to make a fair deal. I've never paid asking price from him and he really does mean 'best offer'!

I don't know what this black stone is, seller said "vintage Thuringan", that could indicate it's not one of the Welsh Thuringans, how can I tell?

Edit: The seller apparently got some rocks from AJ, but all info he had on them seem to check out so far, even if the names are a little confused.

Originally Posted by adrspach

Not suer where negative associations came from.
Just to point out second word in my reply is guess. And as time goes I can say educated guess as I and few of my friends asked the vendor about origin of the hones/material. There would be appropriate to use derogatory term for quality of those answers.
Dictionary says "Slag heap"- In quarrying- term used for a hillock of disposed waste material from quarrying. Nothing about derogatory term. Not sure how you translate "slag heap in in Bethesda" to Welsh language but I am sure it is not "Reclamation yard in Bethesda" which is term used by vendor to answer when people asked where is the material from. I was nicely laughed at by my friends (who live in Bethesda) when I asked them about the reclamation yard where you can get slate. Once you would be there you will know why.
Here you have picture and you can find all colours of slate there as it was quarried from different depths.
53.170084,-4.059191 (Welsh Slate) - Google Maps

In any of my previous replies about these hones I did not deny that they can be decent hones. I only do not like when established names of hones and knowledge about them is being marginalised by the vendor for his commercial gain.

Would you call the car in the link bellow Ferrari just because it came from a car manufactory, it is red and has a horse in it?
Google Image Result for http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/9466/farari13wc.jpg

The dictionary does not tell all. Often times certain words have meanings which carry through a legion of real life understanding. In this part of the world the term slagheap has a very negative connotation. If you referred to an individual as coming from a certain town and referred to it as a slagheap you had better be prepared to fight. In general any quarry or mining operation refers to the leftovers as tailings or the dumps. Slagheap is left for smelting operations where the garbage used in the flux and left over is called slag and is left on a slagheap.

You did say real life didn't you? So far I was talking about place of origin of the material. If you look at the picture there you have disused quarry and tons of whatever you want to call it. Did not want to hurt your feelings. If you decide to persuade yourself to try real life let me know. Our hut is not far from there and if you have a bit of fitness I can show you real YL/LM, LI and other hone quarries in that area.
If you want more fight and Shakespearean experience with another foreigner perhaps separate thread would be more appropriate.