Thread: Dragons Tongue

Hi
I bought this set of welsh slate. The price suited me
I find the roughly correspond to the published grits.
They are slow cutters but I find they will make a nice edge.
The 8k produces a slurry easily, the maroon 12k makes slurry much easier, The 15k will make a slurry slowly and takes more time than either of the others.
If I want to move a lot of metal my cheap 10K chinese stone is my choice.

How are you establishing the grit of your stones?

Yea, some can finish, but 12-15k seems a bit high for those slates.

I've got the same set and I've done a bit of testing, the DT will degrade a Norton 8k edge, the purple maybe slightly improves my N8k edge, the dark one improves the N8k edge noticeable. That's my results on my stones and my shave tests so YMMV considerably. These tests were done with plain water only, no slurry

Originally Posted by Euclid440

How are you establishing the grit of your stones?

Yea, some can finish, but 12-15k seems a bit high for those slates.

Hi
Those are the sellers numbers.
My 10K chinese out cuts the 8K slate by far. The slate are slow cutters.
THeir relative softness is close to each other.
I scribed the sellers number it the ends of the stones.
In appearance the 8k and the 15K are the same color and size. The 15 K seems harder by a bit.
Knowing what I now now I should have bought the nortons and a diamond plate to keep them flat. (More Money )
Most sources by users that I have read say to take off the first 1/8" with a diamond plate to get to more uniform grit.
This seems to be what was needed with my no-name chinese 10k

I use the whole set often if I want to use a natural stone progression. I use my PHIG (C12k) the most as a finisher with the fine dark stone from AJ 2nd, it's a faster cutter than my Chinese hone.

I think AJ's numbers are a bit high, DT 6k, Purple 7-10k(maybe), Dark 10k+

Originally Posted by rodb

I use the whole set often if I want to use a natural stone progression. I use my PHIG (C12k) the most as a finisher with the fine dark stone from AJ 2nd, it's a faster cutter than my Chinese hone.

I think AJ's numbers are a bit high, DT 6k, Purple 7-10k(maybe), Dark 10k+

This is roughly equivalent to my experience with them. I don't know if AJ was actually able to fill my request, but for laughs I asked him if he could possibly choose finer grade hones since my intent was to use them on straight razors.

Unfortunately I've no synthetics higher than 8K to compare stria to, so I can't accurately guess what equivalent my particular hones perform at. The best I can say is Norton = DT < Purple slate = PHIG < Black slate. This is evidenced both by the feel of the edges on my face, and pictures of the stria taken at 200x magnification. Pictures can be found here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ne-camera.html

I haven't shaved off the Dragon's tongue to be sure of where it lies in the progression, but visually I'm placing mine at 8k equivalent. Maybe that will be a weekend project.Could be a fun little experiment.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I have seen that advice many times for the Norton 4k, but never for a natural hone.

I don't even want to know how long it takes to lap 1/8" off a PHIG. It took me 3 hours just to get mine flat so I could start to polish the #$%^ thing.

Originally Posted by Marshal

I don't even want to know how long it takes to lap 1/8" off a PHIG. It took me 3 hours just to get mine flat so I could start to polish the #$%^ thing.

Naturals don't need 1/8" like some synthetics. 1/8" Off a hard PHIG or Arkansas hone might kill me or at least give me tendonitis lol!!!

Agreed, I've only had to do that to the Norton 4K. I don't think I've ever heard of it being applied to another type of hone.

Originally Posted by dkwflight

Most sources by users that I have read say to take off the first 1/8" with a diamond plate to get to more uniform grit.

I have seen that advice many times for the Norton 4k, but never for a natural hone.

Hi
There is no advantage to wasting natural stone unless you are sure of the stratification composition.
There is also good reason for a convex surface on stones. Namely a razor with a curved spine, not a "Smile" blade but curved the other way.
I own one that is being ground straight when ever that blade hits stones.