Thread: Newfound respect for the PHIG.

So, spinning off of Solitary Soldier's thread about Arkansas stones and coticule slurry I set about a similar experiment. I took my Gold Dollar and killed the edge on the side of my Soft Arkansas stone. Then I built up a thick Coticule slurry on it, and brought the edge back. It started dull enough I could slap my hand with the edge, less than 20 minutes later it was sticking to the soft stone and popping arm hair with ease.

At that point I shifted over to the PHIG and made a coticule slurry on the side I left a little rough for just that purpose. Once that was diluted to almost* pure water, I flipped the stone over to my finishing side. This side of the stone is more or less polished and burnished like a Black/Translucent Arkansas stone would be. I built up a light slurry with the PHIG rubbing stone and did a few passes until the razor got nice and sticky, then I cleaned the stone again and shifted to pure water until stiction set in again. For the final phase I made a nice thin shave lather, and lathered up the hone for one last set of passes. The end result is what feels like one hell of an edge on the Gold Dollar. I shaved earlier, so there won't be a shave test until tomorrow, or maybe Sunday.

At any rate, if someone had told me a year ago that it was possible to do a one-stone hone with a PHIG AND get it done in less than an hour, I would've thought they had fallen and bumped their head. It's almost surprising what can be done with a cheap Chinese rock and a little piece of coticule.

I have had my Chinese Phig which was purchased from Woodcraft for at least 5 years now and have had lots of very good success with it. I most generally use it with plain water after coming off the Select Coticule and usually that is all most blades require to get a great smooth shaving edge. Once in a while I will run into a blade that feels a little harder and may have to use the Phig slurry stone to create a light slurry then rinse and finish on water only. Never tried Coticule slurry or lather on a Phig but am looking forward to giving it a shot.

I borrowed the lather idea from barber hones, and I've been pleased with the results. It's kind of like using honing oil, or smith's honing solution. And since it's water soluble, it (mostly) washes right off the surface if the stone.

Coticule slurry is entirely new to me. So far I've only used it a handful of times on a few stones. But it's been a pretty large success. I don't know that I needed PHIG slurry after the coticule slurry, but I figured it wouldn't hurt. I'm going to hate doing it, but after the test shave I'll have to kill the edge and run it through my synthetics to compare how much time it takes.

Well, test half-shave complete. Did the right side of my face with the Gold Dollar, the other half with another razor for a different test. No tugging, close, clean, and mostly comfortable 2 pass shave. I haven't used this in a while and forgot how much weight it has behind it. In spite of my best effort to keep the pressure down I gave myself a bit of razor burn on the right side of my upper lip. But I guess that isn't a strike against the blade or the honing method so much as the loose nut behind the wheel.

Originally Posted by Marshal

Well, test half-shave complete. Did the right side of my face with the Gold Dollar, the other half with another razor for a different test. No tugging, close, clean, and mostly comfortable 2 pass shave. I haven't used this in a while and forgot how much weight it has behind it. In spite of my best effort to keep the pressure down I gave myself a bit of razor burn on the right side of my upper lip. But I guess that isn't a strike against the blade or the honing method so much as the loose nut behind the wheel.

I have really been hit with the disease of HAD since I maxed out my coti the other day. I have a "La Lorraine" layer bbw in the mail, a surgical black in the mail, and I am about to pull the trigger on the PHIG. After that, I think I'm calm down. I hope. I've been repeating my results with the coticule, just killing the edge and honing a beater razor to see. Killer edge. I never thought I could get a coticule edge that shiny. Ever.

marshall, do you recommend, with the PHIG-- burnishing it like I plan to with my surgical black? I was planning on lapping it 80, ~200~350~500, bbw surfacing, coti surfacing, transcluent pocket stone surfacing then breaking it in with a chisel.

Thoughts?

Well, I haven't used loose grit for anything so I'm not sure what that correlates to. If the grit rating correlates to the equivalent sand paper that makes sense, but if the 500 is finer then you might be taking a step back using your BBW/Coticule on it. You also need to remember that the PHIG is a very hard stone, and if your coticule is soft you'll end up abrading it more than the PHIG in all likelihood.

What I did with mine was flatten it with a Norton flattening stone (not recommended but this was before I bought a DMT) then used sand paper - 320, 600, 1000, and 2000 grit - to polish it up. Then I worked the stone a bit with both sides of an old Norton 4/8. The final step was running a kitchen knife over it a few times for burnishing.

But this all depends on which type of PHIG you end up with. There are 2 kinds, one is hard like mine and benefits from a good burnish. The other is softer and needs a slightly different treatment. This thread started by Gssixgun really digs into detail on the matter:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...nese-hone.html

Finally got around to killing the edge to test against a synthetic lineup. Killed it in the same fashion on the soft ark, but this time I brought the edge back on the 1/4/8. Which took probably 15 minutes before I moved on to the PHIG. Here's where things got a little fuzzy. I had a feeling I needed to drop back to the 4K, but I figured eh, I'll get it with a light slurry on the PHIG.

Well, that didn't quite go as planned. I did a little light slurry, then plain water, and finally shave lather but I didn't care for what I was seeing at the edge. Too many left over stria, so I bit the bullet and spent 10 more minutes on the 4/8. Now the edge was looking proper for an 8K and ready to move forward. So really I probably should've spent 20 minutes on the 1/4/8 plus an additional 15 to 20 on the PHIG to get the edge like I wanted. 35 to 40 minutes with synthetics and a natural finisher VS. about an hour on just naturals. Not as big a difference as I had originally imagined.

Pulled the trigger on the Phig, sold to me as a 12k and it smelled like dirt and rain. I cut it down to a size I prefer and lapped it dead flat and polished it all the way up like a black arkie. I'm
Excited to see what she can do.

That's a nice looking rock! Let us know how it performs. The black spots are a good indicator that's the type of PHIG you want going by Gssixgun's thread on them. I wonder if those copper colored inclusions effect honing any...they don't seem to on mine, but it has a very small amount of that coloring by comparison. Let us know what you find out!

Thanks Marshall! I had to adjust the brightness a little so you can see it a little better. In natural light when wet it's darker and the orange spots a little more muted but still there.
The dealer told me they were iron veins. I don't suspect they will intrude, I hope not.

I did notice the slurry when lapping was rather brown, so I'm wondering too. I need a razor to hone on! I have a gold dollar coming in the mail soon, I hope it's not too warped.