Thread: What's in my slurry?

I need to borrow the collective mind for a moment.

Recently, I have been using my Chinese 12K to touch up some of my razors. I have been generating a slurry with one of Chris L's slurry stones, and the results have been very good so far.

I've learned from you all that with a coticule, those fabulous teeny-tiny garnets are responsible for the fine edge-smoothing and polish many of you get, so assuming everything else I do remains consistent, and my slurry is the reason, can anyone tell me what is the cutting agent in the Chinese 12K slurry that seems to be getting it done for me?

I've been searching the forum for weeks, and have read until I feel like I have teeny-tiny garnets in my eye-sockets, but I haven't found anything yet that tells me what's in there!

Did I miss it? My guess so far is quartz, but if anyone knows, or can set me straight, I'll be grateful!

I don't have an answer to that one, Poncho. I'm glad to see the slurry is working for you though. It speeds things up on that stone, doesn't it? Do you finish with water only then? What process incorporating the slurry is working for you on the 12K?

Chris L

Esentially, I'm producing a little slurry, then lightly hone the blade until the stone is nearly dry, or until the blade "sticks" to the hone. (I got that tip in a post from someone on the forum, but I can't remember who? It may have been Kenrup.)

Before, I was using a 1K diamond hone to generate slurry on my stone. A few light strokes produced a lot of slurry. With the slurry stone, it takes a lot of strokes to produce a little slurry, but it seems to work better for me.

(Here I go - ) I'm wondering if using a smoother surface to generate slurry creates smaller particles (whatever they are) than the 1K hone, and those smaller particles are giving me a smoother edge. Does this make any sense, or am I way off base?