Interesting hone test results.
I just got 2 new hones, and was thinking how I could easily judge when each one had done its stuff in a progression. Sometimes I forget or misjudge how coarse the previous hone was, making it hard to tell when all the scratches have been replaced with finer ones. I know, I should pay more attention, but...
I had an idea. All I needed to do was prepare some samples, some bits of steel prepared on each hone, so I could refer to them as needed. I grabbed some steel washers and started honing away. Unfortunately the results were not as straightforward as I'd hoped. :confused:
Instead of a simple sequence of washers with progressively finer scratch marks, I had results that varied in other ways. Ways that I may never have noticed while honing razors, since you don't get to compare results side by side that way.
Here's what I got:
Code:
Hone Cutting speed Scratch marks Shiny? Mirror finish?
Apex (400grit?) Fast Clear to eye Yes No
DMT 8E (1200) Medium Clear to eye Yes No
Norton 4K Fast Fine Medium Just about
Norton 8K Medium Very fine Yes Yes
Coticule+slurry Fast Extremely fine Low No
Coticule+water Slow Extremely fine Low No
Dragon's Tongue Very fast Extremely fine Yes Some
As you can see, not a simple progression at all. The only true mirror finish was from the Norton 8K. The coticule, although having very fine scratch marks, had an overall matt finish, most unusual (though it makes sense when you think of those rolling garnets in the slurry.) I honestly can't tell from this if the Dragon's Tongue gives a better final finish than the coticule. I only bought the DT because it was so cheap and I heard it was a slow and very fine finisher (around 12K+ level?) I had planned to use it after the coticule, but from these simple tests it might replace it altogether! :eek: Quite a feat from a £10 stone.
Anyway, real-world tests will follow, they will be harder than I thought.
Hope you find these results as interesting as I did.
(Edit> Just to clarify, For the finer hones I did go through a progression before using them. So the cutting speeds refer to how quickly the previous scratch marks were removed, not absolute speed.)