Thread: loading vs. glazing

How do you use these terms ?

I believe that loading implies that the strop is fully saturated, while glazing is just adding a light surface coat.

For example:
Last night I had a few too many (dabbs of ChromeOx on my strop). I(t) got loaded.
I just put a light coat of ChromeOx/water on my strop and now it is (excuse me officer, have you been eating doughnuts? Your eyes look a little) glazed.

oh no wonder ha wrong forum
Would a mod mind moving this to basic honing please?

Moved by request !!!!!

I consider a stone that has just filled up with swarf to be "loaded", and an old stone with years of swarf/oil/oxidation to be glazed.

But I won't argue those points, I don't use enough stones that tend to "load up" to have an in depth definition worked out.

(I think I've heard "glazed" used as an extreme form of "loading" as well. In which case the difference is that a stone that is "loaded" can still be used, whereas a stone that's "glazed" no longer cuts steel at all.)

Russel has the right idea:

Glazed=needs resurfacing/lapping to cut, exposed media isn't sharp
Loaded=rinsed or otherwise cleaned and it will cut, exposed media is still sharp, just all gunked up

I concur, so there is no need to defend your positions

Does a Thuringian have a tendency to glaze?

It seems like most sharpeners today tend to lap more often than what was done in the old days.(perhaps)
Most often though glazing seems like a symptom of novaculitis, as most other hard hones come with a slurry stone ( or its use is advised.)

I think both terms are related only to the condition of the stone, not the slurry. For instance you could be sharpening in swarfed out slurry that has such a high concentration of steel that the major effect is burnishing. A loaded stone would behave the same way but the contaminent will not wash away. Glazed is an even worse condition with rounded over abrasive.

What is the negitive of a for a finish stone that begins to show signs of loading? Do you think the steel particles can gamage the edge. In some regards it seems like some burnishing might be a good thing

Originally Posted by kevint

I concur, so there is no need to defend your positions

Does a Thuringian have a tendency to glaze?

It seems like most sharpeners today tend to lap more often than what was done in the old days.(perhaps)
Most often though glazing seems like a symptom of novaculitis, as most other hard hones come with a slurry stone ( or its use is advised.)

I think both terms are related only to the condition of the stone, not the slurry. For instance you could be sharpening in swarfed out slurry that has such a high concentration of steel that the major effect is burnishing. A loaded stone would behave the same way but the contaminent will not wash away. Glazed is an even worse condition with rounded over abrasive.

What is the negitive of a for a finish stone that begins to show signs of loading? Do you think the steel particles can gamage the edge. In some regards it seems like some burnishing might be a good thing

None of the thuringians that I have (seven or so... and counting...) load up at all. In general, a waterstones surface is refreshed by the sharpening action which forms a slurry, so there is almost no way for the metal particles to get stuck in the grit.

Even on stones like the Coticule that are hard enough to resist making a slurry, they don't load up because the shape of the garnet crystals just doesn't trap the swarf. Novaculite and ceramic are the only stones that I've ever had loading occur on.

I like your theory about burnishing, since the blade and swarf would be the same hardness, there shouldn't be any damaging abrasion. At worst it'd impede the cutting speed of the stone.

A couticule is harder than thuringian. I didn't know that. (1 tiny couticule an 0 thuringian).

Any burnishing does impede cutting, I agree. I've never tried to evaluate any benefit. Just off the cuff there could be some benefit to prevent oxidation- but to be effective you really need some serious burnishing.

I don't have many natural stones but the Arkansas are the only ones I can think of that glaze, even with water it isn't long before you will notice it's fresh lapped surface is krispy kreme_d

In general, yes, Coticules are considered harder than Thuringians.

Both are hard stones, but I've had (and heard of) more Thuringians that form their own slurry than Coticules. This is kind of hard to judge, in the context of razor honing, because such a light touch is used at those grit levels that a slurry is easier to make with a rubbing stone.

There's a company called MST (or Manufactum or Muller, can't remember which is most recent) that distributes Thuringians for pretty cheap. This ebay seller has them sometimes, like this one that's part of a kit: MST water stone+straight razor SFK Wapienica 5/8 +strop - eBay (item 360081540724 end time Sep-04-08 12:32:03 PDT)

There's also this guy, who is charging WAY TOO MUCH for the same stone in his buy it now auctions, maybe this one will end low enough to be worth it: ttp://cgi.ebay.com/Original-Thuringian-XXL-Water-Razor-Hone-NEW-5_W0QQitemZ120294120762QQihZ002QQcategoryZ35992QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I reviewed them some time ago in the Hone Review forum, nice stones for the price, I'd put 'em somewhere around 12k.