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.