Slurry

Do you use slurry with you synthetics? Why I asked is that I was having a hard time getting the edge I want and tried a slurry on every stone in the progression and BAM!! perfecto. The steel was hard and maybe that's why?

I often use slurry on any of my homes that I use with water. It often speed the process and gives the hone a wider range of cutting. There are certainly a lot of research you could do into old threads and they would support your current thoughts.

I use slurry with all of my synthetics except my SG20k finisher.

Glen's (gssixgun) Super Stone honing videos on YT show him using slurry with every stone by running a well-worn DMT8C for about 4-6 figure 8's on each stone prior to honing. Before moving up in the progression, he rinses the stone and performs several strokes on the razor without any slurry. This regimen has worked well for all of my razors, regardless of steel type / origin, and the hones remain flat.

"There is Magic in the Mud" ~ gssixgun ca2009

It could be in Syth mud or Natural mud get out there and play in it, if you don't like getting dirty rinse it off :D

Many moons ago as a young lad working in the Geology Lab at school we used to do stone and rock polishing for fun and profit. We had a vibrating lap machine and you placed the victim on it and added water and polishing compound whether it was Cr0 or levigated alumina or cerium oxide and basically made a super slurry which did all the work. Just the media alone didn't do much so yes slurry can move mountains in any kind of honing or similar kinds of work. In the end it's about removing material and polishing.

I have used slurry on synths before but usually not with the Shapton Glass HR series, they're fast enough as is. One exception might be when I start with a Glass 4k and find that I really need something a little coarser. I can take the King 8k 'nagura' that I use for cleaning stones after use and generate some 8k slurry on my 4k stone and not drag out another stone. Quite a handy trick and it doesn't make coarser scratches that I then have to remove.

I would recommend trying one of these stones, they can occasionally be had on Amazon for $8 though they usually run about $12. The nice thing about an 8k or finer cleaner is that you don't have to worry about grit contamination until you get above 8k and it works a treat removing swarf from stones.

Cheers, Steve

I use slurry on my chosera 1k with the cleaning stone it comes with. I don't use slurry on any of the other synthetic stones though. I use the brown cleaning stone the chosera comes with to clean my 5k stone although I will use DMT plate for the 8k since I don't have to clean it as much. Slurry on 1k is usually only used when 1k needed to be cleaned or there is some small chip I need to take out.