chinese 12k, BBW stone. some advice on there usage.

[Krisdavie]

hi guys, its just a quick question but so far my honing touch ups have all taken place in front of my C12K stone, but i also have a BBW stone that seems to be sitting kind of idle at the moment.

from what i have gathered the c12k is a good stone for touch up work to keep a razor sharp, im just wondering what i should be looking to use the bbw stone for? as so far apart from some honing practice on a cheap ebay razor its not really had much use. it did however put a good edge on the cheapy ebay razor that surprised me

any advice would be good as like i say its kinda sitting around gathering dust ( i think its hoping and praying i will use it one day lol).

also on a different note, is 2000 grit wet and dry paper good enough to lap the c12k stone as to me it feels a little uneven.

[holli4pirating]

BBW's are naturals, so they vary in their cutting and polishing characteristics. I played a fair bit with a BBW that I have. I could go from a 1k and use a light slurry on the BBW, diluting along the way, and get a nice shaving edge. I think the edge off my BBW is something like the edge would be off a 6-8k stone. I never tried setting a bevel with my BBW because I never would do that; IMO a 1k synthetic is much faster and more reliable.

Honestly, to really figure out how your stone cuts for you, you're going to have to play with it. The more you play around, the more you learn, and, IMO, that's really the only way to learn.