Thread: belgium blue

Yes, just add some water to the Belgian Blue surface, flip your DMT over and place the DMT on top of the belgian blue. Then with a small number of circular motions, you'll have slurry on your blue and also on your DMT. I take my finger and wipe the slurry on the DMT off and add it to the Blue (or any other stone I do this to).

Chris L

Chris how would you use bbw /yellow together to refesh a razor i no i would need to finish on yellow how would i use the blue i have a rough idea but i have just orderd a blue and not to sure what progession is normally used.

Hmmm, I'll have to try some of these progressions. I've had no luck getting my Blue to do anything for me. It seems to dull my edge if used after the Norton 4k.... I want to use it because its got such a great feel. We'll see...

Jordan

Gary, you can use a cotigura (coticule slurry stone) on a belgium blue to raise a slurry. It's OK to go from finer to coarser. Or you can get a blue slurry stone and those will work fine especially if you like to keep things clean and similar.

You can actually see the garnets if you hold the stone at the right angle in good light. They look like tiny polka dots. The blues cut quickly and I always use them with a slurry. After it looks like the edge is completely done by the blue (I look at it under magnification), I then finish on the coticule. Light strokes then strop on natural leather. Gives me a smooth face.

Originally Posted by Howard

You can actually see the garnets if you hold the stone at the right angle in good light. They look like tiny polka dots. The blues cut quickly and I always use them with a slurry. After it looks like the edge is completely done by the blue (I look at it under magnification), I then finish on the coticule. Light strokes then strop on natural leather. Gives me a smooth face.

If you are referring to the purplish dots, those are not the actual garnets. Those dots are in the 100-300 micron range. I think the garnets are the smaller specks that can be seen with magnification They're in the 10-20 micron range. See the attached picture.
In my experience the Belgian Blue is not a fast hone. I would rather rate it as slow, when I compare it to how fast some Coticules remove steel. I think the Coticule garnets are not only present in a higher concentration, but they also penetrate the steel better. I speculate that Coticule garnets are less fragmented, which causes the spiky corners of the garnets to be sharper. Hence the faster performance, but also more abrasion on the tip of the edge. The Blue is slower, more gentler to the edge, and therefor, with slurry, allows for a keener edge than the Yellow. (less "slurry-dulling").

Bart.

Sounds about right