Thread: My razors won't get sharp...

Natural Wide Welsh Slate Razor Hone 15K Sharpening Stone with Slurry Stone | eBay

I have this stone. Does it fit for razors?

That particular one comes in two varieties, one with a purplish-grey colour and one with a greenish-grey colour. They are from early cambrian deposits. Assigning a grit rating to them of 15k is ludicrous in my opinion - I have tried several examples of both types and would suggest that they are more in the 11+k range. A Naniwa 12k gives a superior edge, as does a good thuringian waterstone (ie, most escher labelled hones). One of them is slightly better (finer) than the other - you can usually tell by the feel of honing on it with slurry. The second best one has a slightly gritty feel to the slurry.

It performs slightly faster than the chinese 12k hone (which is not 12k, in my opinion!) and is slightly more adaptable and more user-friendly than the chinese hone.

The welsh slate hone is rather slow and requires a lot of work, particularly coming from a 6k hone. It should be well slurried (ie a thick slurry should be produced on it when you commence honing) at first and the slurry worked out towards the end of honing. Using it with oil gives a slightly more refined edge than using it with water but is of course much messier! It should leave quite a bright scratch-free bevel to the naked eye, but under magnification it will of course be marked.

If you are using it with just plain water then good luck - book a week or two off, because its going to take you a long time to get the results you want.

It is fine for razors. It's best point is its price. It should leave a very good shaving edge, but as I said, the naniwa super stone 12k is a better and faster finisher.

It should remove the marks - after some deal of time - left by the 6k. Unless your 6k is very 'scratchy' or contaminated with grit from lapping.

Regards,
Neil

Thanks a lot Neil. How much does the slurry reduce the time of honing?

Originally Posted by RustyTorch

Thanks a lot Neil. How much does the slurry reduce the time of honing?

No problem.

Try it and see for yourself.

Regards,
Neil

I am going to link you two threads that should help you quite a bit, and will show you a bit of what Neil is explaining

First a thread about just how sharp a good bevel set really is

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-1k-shave.html

Second a thread and some vids about the fact that using slurry techniques on just about any stone you can shave off of and raise a slurry you can take a Bevel set and produce a good shaving edge

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...lynn-glen.html

Keep in mind that this thread was done 3 years ago and there are many more Vids from Lynn and myself on how to do this, unfortunately I don't have one using the WHIGs but I assure you, I have done it and it is more than possible, they work much like a Thuringen with slurry..


Take your time, and it should all work just so long as the bevel set is solid


ps: WHIG = Welsh Hone of Indeterminate Grit

Thanks a lot