Thread: Guangxi Stone AKA Cnat/c12k

I know these stones have seen their share of threads/topics but I had to share this with everyone. I have read a lot of information here about these hones and keep in mind I don't have any experience except refreshing an edge and even that is VERY limited but ...... Here's the story anyways. Hopefully someone can find something useful in it and if nothing else it is much deserved praise for these guangxi stones.

So in an attempt to keep my edge I tried to make my own denim strop but when I stropped on it something went terribly wrong and I probably rounded my edge some as the razor shaved horribly and would not pass any HHT although it did shave arm hair at the base. So I sat down with the Guangxi stone and some water and gave the razor some slow and deliberate X-strokes with just water and NO pressure At the advice of some members here I did 15 at a time and then tested the blade. First 15- nothing. Second 15- nothing (started getting nervous that It was past refreshening). Third set of 15 and it started passing a HHT-0 and HHT-1 and caught arm hair a bit above the skin but was missing more than it was catching. Fourth set of 15 and it was passing HHT-3 all along the blade! Total of 60 no pressure X-strokes with only water. I then went to a pasted balsa strop.3/.1 and did 5 on green and 10 on red and then stropped 50 on leather (I threw out the homemade denim one). I'll be darned if it wasn't passing at a HHT-4 and taking the tips off arm hair!! I had a shave with it and man was that blade sharp and smooth. First BBS (all over/all directions) I've had since I transitioned from a shavette to a straight about two weeks ago.

I cant say enough about these stones. From what I have read here and my experience they are great stones. I don't have one with the darker 'tiger' stripes though but mine is pretty hard and very smooth and has light grey/white lines that run the length of it and actually through the stone. I am not convinced there are certain things you can look for to ensure you get a great stone except maybe the density of it? I am not sure about that either. All I know is this one put a wicked edge on a razor for a beginner. I can't imagine what it would do for someone that is skilled at these no pressure X-strokes. It took me about 3 minutes to do one set of 15 so only about 13 minutes total on this stone.

Once I get consistent with refreshing my edge I want to try things with a slurry as I also have a slurry stone but first things first. For now, clear water and no pressure seem to be working very well. Eventually I am going to shoot for a HHT-5 as I have never experienced this even with my feather DE blades. I'll try to post a picture of my stone in the next post. Thanks to everyone and hopefully I can get in on the next C-Nat-athon!

I can't figure out how to turn the pictures and they came out sideways. Lol

That looks just like my stone. I busted it out this morning to refresh my shumate. I'm supposed to get some new soap in the mail today so I'm waiting for that to come in and I'll try it out.

Your stone is certainly different from mine. My stone has diagonal olive drab colored tiger stripes running through it. Makes a milky white slurry and it a good finisher for most blades.

Those are very good finishing stones but they are a bit slow cutting and very slow wearing. I usually do about 100 laps on mine; do 50 light, turn stone end for end and do another 50 very, very light or no pressure.

I had one for a while and quite liked it. It gave quite a good finish to a razor edge. It was a little slow but that's no drama. If you're looking for a way to just keep a shave ready razor, shave ready, then you could do a lot worse than buying one of these. I also like the fact that you can them in quite a decent size stone.

These are great stone and I've owned mine for a few years now. I have restored and sold many razors. When selling, the one thing that can set you apart is the edge and how the razor performs. I've had great feedback over the performance of the razors and it's due to the great edge this stone delivers. Continue to practice and this stone gets better and better. Here's one of my rules; before I leave the hone and move to the strop the razor must grab hairs, with ease, over the entire blade. Then, the blade is ready for stropping.

Tall Guy

Originally Posted by GeauxLSU

Your stone is certainly different from mine. My stone has diagonal olive drab colored tiger stripes running through it. Makes a milky white slurry and it a good finisher for most blades.

Yeah. That's what I mean. I heard the tiger striped ones are the ones you look for but mine is very different but is still really hard and seems to work great for me. At any rate I love my guangxi and for now wouldn't think of selling it.

Here is the one that I use. It leaves a really fine edge, but is on the crisp side. I recently got a Jnat and I use the Jnat slurry stone on it and it seems to remove the crispness from the edge. I have been experimenting with different slurries to see what the edges are like.