I am looking to buy my first hone. Can anyone give advice re this welsh slate hone please? Inigo Jones Welsh Slate Products It mentions the forum on their website, so I presume it's a decent hone?
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I am looking to buy my first hone. Can anyone give advice re this welsh slate hone please? Inigo Jones Welsh Slate Products It mentions the forum on their website, so I presume it's a decent hone?
I wouldn't recommend it, only because too little is known about it and there has been a lack of reviews or testing.
I bought one to play with -- how could I not, with the price?!? But no idea how to fit it into a progression. I'm not convinced it should be used after a coti -- I certainly could not discern an improvement and suspect it was possibly degraded slightly.
To be honest, I have kind of given up on it. I'm getting such good results from BBW/coti combo that I'm not particularly driven to figuring out the Dragon's Tongue.
I'm keen to hear others' feedback though.
This one is lapped and sitting on my honing stone shelf. I keep meaning to give it a thorough testing, but time has not permitted it yet.
Chris L
Well i like mine and find it very similar to the Chinese 12K..
I think the Dragons Tongue is a bit finer than the Chinese but just a bit and might cut a bit faster.... but again just a bit. They both work best with a nice thick slurry and when used that way cut acceptably fast and don't glaze or load up. They both take out the scratches of my Kitayama and leave it with an almost scratch free surface under a 30x loop. My biggest complaint is the size. I wish it was the size of the large Chinese stone with its width and clearance. I think these stones get a bad name because they don't cut like crazy. If you use them after a 1200 or 4000 you will spend a fare bit of time on the stone , but if used after an 8000 and use slurry they work fine and give a very fine edge..
Bang for the buck.. Chinese 12K
Best stone ....... Dragons tongue on pure finish quality but the Chinese might win on points...
Need more time with both..... ask again in a year.
I like what I hear. I don't doubt this. It's been said that judging a stone by tactile feel alone doesn't really tell you all that much. I'm not so sure. Every time I've lapped a new stone very smooth and felt it, even with my eyes closed for good measure, the smoother the stone the finer the edge. My Nakayama Asagi feels as smooth as glass and is certainly the finest grit stone I own. My point is after being lapped properly, the DT is smoooooth. Cool now I really need to move it up in the rotation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Newbflat
Thanks.
Chris L
I do like these hones. I use it after my Norton 8k, followed by some CrO. Gives a very nice edge. But I'm still trying to figure out what grit it is as I don't have any other high grit hones to compair it with. If you don't have any other polishing stone, I would certainly recommend it (can't go wrong at the price either). Also, being a natural stone, mine has some very nice patterns in it, which just makes it a nice experience to hone with.
Newbflat: What do you use to make a slurry on the DT? I've got a small piece of DT, which I bought for that purpose, but it is almost impossible to use for that purpose.
Steven
I don't doubt that a bit, Steven. I have a purple and gray slate hone and a piece of slurry stone. Attempting to create slurry with this stone and its slurry stone makes almost no slurry.Quote:
Originally Posted by nerobot
Attachment 22282
Chris L
I use a small 1"x 2 1/2" fine diamond plate to build a slurry and it works well. I really wish this was a bigger stone or at least thicker. It wont fit in my stone holder and doesn't have finger clearance. It might be ok for in the hand honing but its thinness means it needs to be on the edge of my table and not in my normal sharpening station. One last note.. I think the DT leaves a bit more of a mirrored/ shiny surface than the Chinese 12K.. the Chinese a bit more misty.
Dragons Tongue is said to be 8K- 10K from the research I have found.Quote:
Originally Posted by nerobot
Five years later, it's good to know we got another answer.
Better late than never??
Quote:
Originally Posted by Utopian
Yup.
I never got around to buying one of those because it always bugged me that the hone was so cheap and the shipping was so expensive.
Hey....welcome back ....the man with all the stones...LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by Utopian
Thanks I'm glad to be back, but I'm still missing a few!
Well, 5 years later, the Welsh Slate hones are almost as popular as the chinees 12 K
http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...lar-basis.html
That's not the same "Welsh State." The Dragon's Tongue is not a much of a finishing stone.
Hmmm, so if DT is not much of a finishing stone, would it not rate as high as others have said 8K-10K? or are there other things to consider for finishing?Quote:
Originally Posted by Utopian
Regarding honing material, are we looking for most anything with as fin a surface as we can find like some of the welsh stones? If so, how would marble and granite work? Just thinkin out loud here. I know cutting through rubber with a knife will dull it quick so I have back strapped in the filed across rubber to try and sharpen a blade. Using the same principle - wouldn't most anything of good sound structure and fine enough grit be used ? This would usually equate to some sort of stone i guess - hence the slate. Maybe I just answered my question. Marble, Granite, Glass???
If we are talking about the stones A_J the ebay seller sells, he also has a Yellow Lake (purple hone) and a very hard dark grey/green stones that are 10k+. I think my Dragons Tongue is under 8k and more like 6k. These are naturals so your mileage may vary
the DT will provide a nice shaveable edge, some drag, but smooth and no tugging.
I don't know where the domain of finishers starts, I would say anything that can be used before a plane leather strop to give a nice shave. so I guess anything above 6 to 8 K can be considered a finisher
A while back I bought some chalk board slate & some slate used in old windows at a school. I will have to say the chalk board slate is a pretty good hone. I flattened it & made a hone about 1/2" X 3" X 8" & I like it.
Its interesting to see the different layers of silt that were of different material ever so slightly to make up this bed of slate.
Dave
Going to my Dragon's tongue from an 8K Norton I see no improvement. I don't see any degradation either, so I'm satisfied to say that mine has the same performance as an 8k hone. I need to do a little more testing with it, but I've worked a razor from 1K up with slurry dilution and the result was pretty good. I'll have to do a proper shave test with a razor honed on just the Dragon's Tongue, but as it stands I feel comfortable saying I could probably live with just a 1K hone for bevel setting and a Dragon's tongue for everything else. I'll play with it more when my next lot of razors comes in.
