Thread: Hello from Aus and UK

Originally Posted by outback

The old Barber's hones, like the Swatty. Most of us have had success with coating them with petroleum jelly, and heating them up. Probably can find it in a search.

Funny you mention your butterscotch, being translucent. Mines the same way. The white, next to it for reference.

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Definitely, the cream of the crop for Washitas.
Mines very burnished, and I use it only for straights. I leave the white, for knives in such.

I initially set the bevel on a razor, with a 1k synthetic. Then move to the Washita and just plain water. That will refine to about 5 k. If I want to refine the edge further, I can add a few drops or pure glycerin, or maybe hand or dish soap. I don't like oil, unless I want it to be more aggressive, and become a cutter, than a polisher.

Their a really cool stone, once you figure them out.

Interesting... I always use mine with oil, because that aggressive cutting is great for knives (and indeed removing dings like I was doing yesterday!). But I'll certainly try using water and soap when using them for more delicate SR stuff in the future. My caramel coloured one is the Pike LW in my earlier pic; similar level of translucency to your one in comparison to the more normal white version, and like yours it's definitely at the hard and fine end of the scale, and burnishes more than others. SG is around 2.45 from memory, perhaps I'll follow your lead and reserve that one for razors going forward, and keep the coarser, faster ones for knives.

Certainly one of the most remarkable stones ever quarried, the only thing that I've found that will really compare are 'Turkish' stones, which I'd strongly recommend if you don't have one. I think it's now generally accepted that old Turkish stones and modern Cretan stones are one and the same, and in my experience I would categorically say that is the case. I absolutely love my old Turkish, but there's no denying they're the same rock as my Cretan stone (which is also excellent), so you don't have to spend silly money to get an old one .

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Thank you for the tip re - BHs, 'll have a search and read up about the procedure.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Welcome to SRP!
I really like, and approve of, your collection of hones. I also find them to be very interesting in their different characteristics.
Someday, after I finish moving, I will take and post a pic of my collection.
Btw, I really like what you have done with the razors.

Ah cheers! I was quite pleased with how they came out, especially the last one, and frankly rather surprised that I could get a nice usable edge on razors I'd sanded down and then honed from scratch. Though I do a lot of knife sharpening on a daily basis so kinda understood already how geometry works, and differences between abrading and edge refinement.

Having said that... the very best edge I can get on any of my razors is still on the one that was initially honed by someone else, and I've since just touched up on finishing stones a few times. So definitely still lots to learn and room for improvement.

Look forward to seeing your collection after the move!

Oli, you have certainly passed the hone acquisition disorder and razor restoration/modification parts of the SRP entrance exam

You have more hones than most of us. We have a few folks who are really quite expert about sharpening stones and will likely chime in on the conversation.

I don’t have a lot of hones, but have found that I rely on my combination coticules and finish on my Pierre la Lune or an Oozuku, both with glycerine and water. I also use chromium oxide on a balsa paddle strop to refresh an edge.

Hi and welcome aboard. Great collection of stones.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Oli, you have certainly passed the hone acquisition disorder and razor restoration/modification parts of the SRP entrance exam

You have more hones than most of us. We have a few folks who are really quite expert about sharpening stones and will likely chime in on the conversation.

I don’t have a lot of hones, but have found that I rely on my combination coticules and finish on my Pierre la Lune or an Oozuku, both with glycerine and water. I also use chromium oxide on a balsa paddle strop to refresh an edge.

Haha... yeah the HAD's bad eh! Still it give me lots of fun things to play around with, while learning more about razor honing / restoring .

For instance I haven't yet managed to master all the slurry techniques people talk about for using coticules with SRs. Coticules give gorgeous (imo) edges on kitchen knives at the quite fine end of the scale, but even very fine examples seem to be quite aggressive for razor finishers, so I think need to read up more about the techniques and tricks people use.

I've only used an Ozuku a few times, but it wasn't mine and was before I started with SRs. Something that hard and fine is basically completely pointless for a knife, but I can imagine make for superb razor stones. I only have one Jnat that would be a razor finisher, which I actually came about by chance when playing one of my favourite games: Cheap-Ebay-Mystery-Stone-Roulette. And rather amazingly a $25 Aus stone from someone in Sydney who'd been an apprentice carpenter in the '50s, turned out to be an absolutely beautiful Mizu Asagi, on the right of the pic below. No stamps any more obviously, but if it isn't a Nakayama it's certainly doing a good impression of one:



Stone on the left is interesting too... I've made dozens of whetstones out of local slates, most of which I've given away to people, that one though I kept. It's not just good-for-something-you've-found-on-the-ground good, it's a really properly good stone.

I forgot to mention that I also have a Vermio, which now seems to be one of those hard to find stones, but wasn’t very expensive at the time. It is a good finisher - hard and slow, so it requires some patience and seems perfect for razors. I use it with water and glycerine and no slurry. The vendor claims it is the equivalent of 12K - 15K, but that kind of claim is always up for debate.

When I reset a bevel or have to work on damaged edges, I use a DMT coarse or Extra Fine, a Shapton Kuromaku 1K, and my trusty Norton 4k/8k.

I have been impressed with the recent re-release of the Pierre la Lune stones. The one I have seems to be a great finisher for my razors. As with the Vermio, I work with water and glycerine and no slurry.

Since I’ve been using the combination coticules for several years now, I seem to have them dialled in. The BBW side works really well for my knives as well. I use the coti side and start with a milky water & glycerine slurry and work my way through a series of dilutions to just clear. The edges are very comfortable at the end of the progression, but I do a final polish using one of my finishers just because.

The cotis take a while and each one is just a bit different. I really like the edges I get with mine and have so far resisted HAD to get other hones.

Funnily enough I have a Vermio hone on its way to me soon (courtesy of a member here), looking forward to trying!

Noted re - glycerine and water. It wasn't something I'd heard of before starting to hone razors, but see recommended quite often, so will have to give it a try. I have a few cotis of various different kinda 'grit' levels; I don't know anything about what layers they are, there was just a period where I kept coming across them second hand for about $10 Aus a pop and I couldn't say 'no', so ended up with six or seven

The most peculiar of them is the one below; this certainly wouldn't be a razor stone, but I don't know if you or anyone else has come across anything similar? It's a decent sized (180x50), naturally bonded stone, with a very thick BBW layer. And both that and the coticule part are seriously coarse and fast - no higher than 3k - far coarser than other of my others.

I think it is unusual to find a coarse coti in the 3k range. I wonder if it just needs to be lapped.

I am very jealous that you were able to pick up so many cotis at such a low price. They cost many times that this side of the pond. The two I favour are natural combination stones, one of which came from Ardenes via a vendor in the US and the other I inherited from my dad who had no earthly reason to own one. I have no idea what veins they come from, but they do the job.

The one stone I have the most difficulty with is what was sold to me as a small green thuri. Just can’t seem to get the thuri edge everyone talks about.

Yeah it's a really weird one that coti, it certainly did need lapping when I got it, but it's just really coarse - quite a lot coarser than any of my others. Absolutely great knife stone, and perhaps could set bevels on a razor, but it'd never get anywhere near finishing one I don't think. Atypical but very interesting stone!

Slow response I know but you have more hones than I do for sure, at least if all you are counting is razor hones since I do not use them for both. I have a butt load of "knife stones," many of which I got in eBay lots I bought for one specific stone but the majority came from my dad who had a sharpening business. I have one big 2 sided carborundum/crystolon that was his I basically ignored until recently. It was filthy but I finally cleaned it up with some mineral spirits and a wire brush before a soak which brought it back to near new looking condition. I think it is an old Norton but the stamp is long gone.

It has turned out to be a real workhorse and much better than I realized for kitchen knives.

Here is another interesting one of his which he told us not to use for knives or other tools when we were kids, he said, "because this is made for sharpening razors."


It is a massive toe breaker, 10 ¾ x 3 ¾ x 3 ¼ and is 2 sided. One has a mineral of some kind you can see in the second pic and is much harder. I haven't really deciphered that one yet. I have a tendency to get distracted by new garden rocks which make me say, "hmmm... Bet I could hone a razor on that," of which I have many.

Thanks for sharing that collection though. Man, now my HAD is flaring up again.