Thread: when do you guys use the slurry?

Originally Posted by Utopian

I'm not sure that the Norton "slurry stone" actually creates a slurry other than from off of itself because it is so soft. I consider it to be a prep stone that clears swarf off of the stone but I don't think does much to improve cutting power of the hone.

This is very much true as is the same thing for almost all nagura stones.

These little stones are quite frequently used to "create a slurry" but what's really being done is that this stone is cleaning the larger stone's surface and breaking down in the process. This creates a paste that's made up of about 98% nagura, 1% metal swarf, and 1% large stone particles. Now add to the mix that almost all synthetic naguras (like the Norton) are no finer than 6k in grit size (many are much coarser) and you can easily see how using them to create a slurry on a finishing stone/hone is a bad idea. I've used a bunch of different naguras and have never found one that makes better slurry than if you just used a diamond plate on the larger stone to make some mud. These nagura stones are only good for light cleaning tasks and for surface conditioning (ie - refining the stone surface for better results), besides that they're useless.