Thread: Slurry

Is slurry necessary to get a good edge? I've always just used clear water when honing on my Nortons and I can get a good shave WTG and ATG. Just wondering if I'm not honing the right way.

Slurry is absolutely not necessary with the Norton's to produce a nice shaving edge in my opinion.

Have fun,

Lynn

If it works for you, then your fine. A slurry is not necesary. It does help speed things along though on naturals.

As said above, using slurry can drastically cut down on the time spent. It will make the stone cut much faster. However, like Lynn said, it's not necessary to get a good shaving edge, it just helps to do it quicker. I finish on plain water anyways after i've done most of the cutting with the slurry on the hone.

For fear of misquoting, an intelligent man once said that; "slurry is a tool."
Do I need a left tilting table saw to build a cabinet? No. (But don't tell my wife)
It is nice to have the extra tool in your arsenal when attacking each job.

Key is knowing how to use a particular tool, reading and experimentation is what it takes. I've come to a point that I don't use slurry very often on synthetics (naniwa & shapton gs's). I experiment on my own razors from time to time when I have time to teach myself a few things. When I do use slurry, my favorite slurry to date is generated with a coti bout & I only use it to 8K.

I agree 100% that slurry's are great on naturals though...I like to start with slurry from that stone and then dilute a few times to a clear stone.

I didn't notice anyone mention it, so I will. Yes, slurry makes some things cut faster, but in the end when you are finishing with a particular stone, slurry can interfere with getting the most sharpness potential from that stone. Whether it's your last stone, or just one within a progression, in general you want to finish without slurry and just use water.