King Waterstones.

[Pendulum]

So a while back I purchased a set of 3 King brand waterstones 220 1000 and 6000 grit w/ nagura stone. They were purchased with the intent to be used on my pocket and camp knives. Satisfactory results, a nice edge for utility i think.

So now that I've taken up straight razor shaving I tried to sharpen a razor on the 1k and 6k stones with intent to finish up with my great grandfathers coticule.

So I took a Robeson SureEdge that i got at an antique mall and started reseting the bevel. After a few laps on the 1k it started taking an edge. A few more and it was able to pop arm hair. After that I pulled the 6k out of the water and created a very thin slurry with the nagura as indicated in the instructions. A few laps and it's polishing the edge, but with the TPT it doesnt feel keen anymore. No longer pops arm hair. i think maybe it just needs more polishing so about 20 laps with just water on the stone. No keen edge still.

So my question for the masters is why might this be occuring?

Further info, I lapped the stones on 180 grit paper on a glass tabletop about 1/2" thick. erases the pencil grid pretty evenly. Both stones soak in water for an hour prior to honing.

Thanks for your time, hope something arises from this

[mainaman]

the nagura is synthethic and 600 grit. you need to make slurry with something that is finer.
here you can find a 6k nagura , or you can use 1.2k dmt plate to make slurry on the stones. You can try no slurry and see what happens.

[Lynn]

I have tried the King stones and am really not a fan. I don't find them as consistent as I like. That said they will work, but usually with a lot of tinkering. I usually advise people not to use the nagura stones to create a slurry on these stones and just use water, which seems to help.It is likely that more laps on the 6K will over hone the razor and you might want to cut down with the amount of strokes you are currently using and move to the Coticule when it first feels sharp. Never know though and you can always try both ways.

Good Luck,

Lynn

[hi_bud_gl]

So a while back I purchased a set of 3 King brand waterstones 220 1000 and 6000 grit w/ nagura stone. They were purchased with the intent to be used on my pocket and camp knives. Satisfactory results, a nice edge for utility i think.

So now that I've taken up straight razor shaving I tried to sharpen a razor on the 1k and 6k stones with intent to finish up with my great grandfathers coticule.

So I took a Robeson SureEdge that i got at an antique mall and started reseting the bevel. After a few laps on the 1k it started taking an edge. A few more and it was able to pop arm hair. After that I pulled the 6k out of the water and created a very thin slurry with the nagura as indicated in the instructions. A few laps and it's polishing the edge, but with the TPT it doesnt feel keen anymore. No longer pops arm hair. i think maybe it just needs more polishing so about 20 laps with just water on the stone. No keen edge still.

So my question for the masters is why might this be occuring?

Further info, I lapped the stones on 180 grit paper on a glass tabletop about 1/2" thick. erases the pencil grid pretty evenly. Both stones soak in water for an hour prior to honing.

Thanks for your time, hope something arises from this

You should be able to make your blade shave ready with stones you have.
You problem is NAGURA small stone which is your are trying to make slurry.
Try to make slurry out of 6k (use chinese stone or dmt for slurry) then continue until you will pop up hairs very easy. after that move to coticule gl.
hope this helps.

[Pendulum]

Thanks for the replies guys.

So might problem could be my Nagura. When I get home tonight I will pull them out and let em soak a bit, then instead of the nagura i'll use what i believe to be around a 1k Lansky continous surface diamond plate I have. Hopefully that makes things a bit better.

[kevint]

I too think you should simply skip the slurry making. You may wish to return to it later, but at this point I think it will only add confusion.

[cotdt]

I have the same King stones and they are good cutters w/o the slurry. I just use clean water. They are very similar to my Naniwas but drink more water and need a bit more lapping.

[Memorael]

I too think the problem is the slurry +1 on the just add water tip.

[DwarvenChef]

Kings are soft as well and will make a slurry just from use. I also remember them dishing faster. So keep an eye out on that.

[jendeindustries]

I think a distinction between paste and slurry needs to be made here.

IME, the nagura stone makes a paste, which I will call a softer abrasive, more like talc. When used in conjunction with the stone, the particles of stone, nagura and steel combine over time (usually several minutes+ of time) to make that drier, muddy paste (mixed with only a little water to keep it from turning into a cement), which is then used as the sharpening medium (a comparison to using pasted strops can be made here). In theory it is finer than the stone itself, and abrades relatively softly, giving an "artificial" 12k finish off the 6K stone, for example.

A slurry is made from a stone of the same grit, which acts as an enhancer to the stone's abrading action, not a "softener" or polisher. Its like using two of the same grit stones at once. That is why honing with a slurry calls for a dilution to achieve the finest, or smoothest results.

So with this outlook, I think you would need many more laps on the 6k with the nagura paste (about 20-30 minutes worth, seriously) to get the keenness you want.

As cotdt suggested, since you are going to finish on the cotecule, why not leave the nagura out and use only water on the 6k.

P.S. - I'm being serious - does your 6k King smell funny? My 4k and 6k kings have a weird odor - not musty - , and none of the others have it. Just curious....