Thread: Chinese 12k leaves edge dull?

Hey,

As far as I know, Chinese 12k might not be the best stone there is but for many it's the ultimate finishing stone.

Well, I've just finished honing my Dovo and as a result I noticed the edge seems to be dull? When I now compare part of the edge that had direct contact with hone surface to the ones on the blade's ends it's more satin. I've had some problems to pop a hanging hair now.

I used my C12k wet with slurry, giving long, steady passes. Can hones vary that much?

I have two c12k's, both bought from the same source. One of them leaves an edge that would fall between 6 and 8k. The other one leaves an edge that is as fine as any thuringen. There is a great variance among all of the Chinese stones. To get a great one is almost a matter of luck.

This could totally be off mark, but it may be the razor and not the hone.

I've got a new Dovo that shaves just fine. It was professionally honed, and once it started tugging I tried to give it a touch up on a barber's hone I got (which seems to be pretty fine grit, to me), followed by a CrOx pasted stropm but it hasn't been easy. Every time I hit the razor with that hone, it seemed to make the edge more dull. Long story short it's taken a LOT of effort to get the thing back to shave-ready, trying different numbers of strokes (usually way more than I'd expect) on both the hone and the strop (usually way fewer than I'd expect). I'm now at the point where it works, and the razor is sharper, but it's still not great.

This morning I decided to try and touch up a vintage Henckels I have. Literally 10 light passes on the hone and it's popping hairs again no problem. The only difference I can tell between the two situations are the razors.

So maybe your Dovo just doesn't respond well to this kind of hone?

Slurry reduces the grit size so a 12k with heavy slurry may only be 7-8k.

Slurry also has a rounding effect on the edge. It's almost like dragging the edge through very fine sand that adds a polish to the sides of the bevel but rounds the very edge of the bevel off.

What you need to do is start with a light slurry and dilute to plain water. That way you'll get the polish on the edge but honing with plain water will keep the sharpness on the edge too.

Give that a try and see how that helps!

+1 to Stubear's slurry technique. Heavy slurry will dull a blade.

What's already said. I did a razor on a C12K earlier today, and started with slurry, doing 5-6 regular strokes, dip the razor, 5-6 x-strokes, dip again, 4 rounds of that and then about the same with water only, ended up with a very sharp edge that was über smooth.

Okay, as soon as I get back home I will give it a few more passes. When I applied slurry it didn't feel like 12k hone but rather something far down below 10 in my opinion, it just sounds not like polishing but rather aggresive honing.

When I use my PHIG, I only use water; no slurry.

I can´t recommend the people's hones own slurry either. It is quite coarse and leaves worse scratches than medium japanese naturals.
I could indeed recommend a medium or fine slurry stone made out of a japanese natural, and slurry the PHIG with that.

If I where you I would try to finish my razor on the best stone I currently have (hopefully something around the 8k mark) and
put the razor on the C12k for another 40 laps. If you are not yet satisfied, add another layer of tape and do 10-20 more laps and see if it works

btw. how is the condition of the surface of your PHIG? Did you finish the stone yourself, or use it like it was?

It came pre-lapped by vendor (open_razor). I didn't touch it since then. It's nearly flat with slight curve in the middle. I could sometimes feel like if the hone was "catching" the razor, the passes weren't smooth. And now after your post i'm coming to conclusion that it needs lapping. Is 1000g sandpaper enugh for that type of stone?