Thread: My African Zulu Grey

Sounds like your experience with the Zulu Grey was similar to mine. To get the effect of added smoothness after my 12K I now do some laps on a crox sprayed hanging felt strop instead. More than one way to get to the same destination and the takes nothing away from the Zulu Grey and what it can do. Nice to be able to combine sharp and smooth in an edge.

Bob

Yes!
Sharp and smooth is a big bonus. Cant wait to try out my best shaving razor on this stone after i lap it. T.C. i did put a straight edge on it last night before bed and found the middle of the stone was a bit higher than the sides. So guess a lapping i will go. This is going to take some time for sure. Figure ill start with a dmt then w/d paper. And finish with some 600 or 800 paper to try to get a nice burnish on the stone. Any recommendations on this lapping? I habe a nice piece of marble tile for lapping on for flat.

Sounds about right, Jerry.

How long from ordering did your ZG take to land on your doorstep?

I think it was about 2 months. Maybe a bit less. I hear folks last year waited much longer than me to get them.

Question for the group. I will find this out myself in time but,
Do you find a certain steel works better on the Zulu that others? Or maybe one type doesn't match well with it?

Jerry your thread prompted me to re-visit my Zulu yesterday. It had arrived flat, I sanded it up to 1200k wet n' dry and then a quick polish with Micromesh up to 6000 (that's over the top but what the heck). Water only, keen and comfortable edge after the Naniwa SS 12k - although as others said nothing seems to happen until about 200 strokes....

Well, like some of you, I have a tough beard and sensitive, so I like my edges keen, yet smooth. I have been able to achieve that on a couple of finishing stones beyond 12K. I own a Jerry Stark custom which I beleive he finished on a ZG, but I was not satisfied with the edge until I rehoned it. However, I do not know whether that was due to the ZQ or the technique off its use. After I rehoned it on my stones, it has a nice edge.

I placed my order for a ZG yesterday. We'll see how long it takes to arrive. When it gets here, I will try some of the techniques suggested here to see what kind of edges I can get from it.

Good luck with your ZG. Be sure to post up your findings. And hope it dont take too long to ship. Its not very speedy coming from that end of the continent. I think it gets passed to 3 different places before it crosses the big pond.

Not sure I would like a slow finisher, my normal progression if all goes well and the undercut is good is 4K, 8K ( Shapton GS ) 12K NN then some passes on a Nakayama Kiita with a mist of slurry and then strop, time spent on each stone is about 3-4mins, I used to do long honing sessions on JNATS like 30 mins plus just on the finisher and finally figured out it was a waste of time

Dear Gasman,

To prevent scratching of the main stone during slurrying following was helpfull to me:

• First I've created some convexity to one of the surfaces of the Zulu-Slurry. This seems to provide multiple advantages (reduces sticking, increased contact, allows to slurry with less pressure)
• Smoothed out all edges and corners so that they would not "catch" the main stone
• Use very little pressure during slurrying
• I do list one end of the Slurry stone so that the curved part gets in contact with the main stone (just a little bit, sometime it's just a tendency to lift) until I feel it stops slipping and starts "working"

My Zulu main stone has created a glazy surface after some use. I do keep it as it is but I've read somewhere that some users don't like the shaves of the glazy-Zulu and do refresh its surface each time bevore using by a diamond card. The slurrying can still be done with its own slurry stone.

Happy adventures with the piece of africa

Philipp