Thread: Chinese 12k

Congrats on what many consider a "diamond in the ruff" hone! It is by far my favorite and should deliver a very smooth and very sharp edge but it takes some time to learn it. Best of luck! There is a lot of information here on this stone. Here is a thread I posted recently which also has some great links to a wealth of information and that is just a start!

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-cnat-ect.html

Originally Posted by Steel

Congrats on what many consider a "diamond in the ruff" hone! It is by far my favorite and should deliver a very smooth and very sharp edge but it takes some time to learn it. Best of luck! There is a lot of information here on this stone. Here is a thread I posted recently which also has some great links to a wealth of information and that is just a start!

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-cnat-ect.html

Where can I buy one?

Originally Posted by engine46

Where can I buy one?

Buy Natural Water Stone, 8" x 2" x 1" at Woodcraft.com

Or, I think Whipped Dog sells them in a smaller size...

Invisible Edge in the UK has them as well. Shipping might be a tad spendy though...

I got mine off ebay but it took some work to lap it. I think the consensus here is woodcraft in the USA. You could check out the website Phoenix linked.

The so called "Chinese 12k" is among my favorite finishers since the day I started shaving with a straight razor, more than 10 years ago. I absolutely love the "velvet" touch it can give to the edge. It is a very slow cutter, but it definitely is worth using it. Not to mention its super cheap price, it is a natural stone anyone can afford and wish to try at least once.

Ive gotten mine from this vendor: Natural Sharpening Stone 12000 Grit 6x2" Chinese Whetstone for Fine Honing | eBay

@Michael I've already had a chance to test it before i buy it! Not really into getting items on the blind!

I dont know if I should be the one to comment on this as I've used 10k naniwa for my finishing hone since I've started honing! On razors that are less or equal to 5/8 inch wide i really couldn't tell you but on the larger razors you can really feel the difference! It is a slow hone so beware you need to do 100 laps or more on it but I've found it gives me good feedback both sonic and phisical! For the price of 37$ I'd recommend that for everyone to get for finishing stone just fot the hell of it because its really nice!

Also I've found somewhere info that if used with slurry ( and it does come with slurry stone) it give a grit of approximately 8k, so thats what im going to try next time taking the razor through slurry than 10k than 12k and than stropping couple of hundred times!

Well isn't this funny. I just got done honing a razor and a c12k and shaved with it. I usually finish on a black ark but felt like experimenting. I was going to start a new post to give my impressions of it but now I don't have too. Well hopefully I am not hijacking the thread.

Anyways I have a c12k that I got off of ebay for pretty cheap. I don't remember the price. Anyways I sometimes use it as an in-between of my coticule and my ark and really not all that often. Only on a few razors thats I feel sometimes benefit from the extra stone in the progression.

Anyways I was just resetting the edge of the razor because my wife had a tiny glass shard in her foot and she used it to get the shard out. I went to the coti and raised a light slurry and quickly moved through the progression to clear water. Wiped it off and went to the c12k. I only did weight of razor x's and and did about 100 laps which didn't take to long and considering I am just at home melting my remaining brain cells watching the Simpsons marathon, I didn't really mind. Besides 100 laps does not take that long at all. Try using a 4x2 black ark that is ridiculously broken in, talk about lap counts being in the 500 or more. The c12k definitely has feedback to it. I could tell instantly when it was done.

Anyways I stropped and prepped as usual and I will say that I was very impressed with it. It was very close to the feel I get from my arks. Not quite the same but definitely close. I even got BBS on my upper lip without irritation. Something only the ark has been able to give me.

Anyways,

Final Verdict for my c12k: Definitely a great stone. Definitely great for someone trying to get into naturals for the first time. Regardless of price whether it be expensive or cheap (fortunately and what makes it better for the beginner is that it is cheap) this is an excellent stone

Originally Posted by babarog

Ive gotten mine from this vendor: Natural Sharpening Stone 12000 Grit 6x2" Chinese Whetstone for Fine Honing | eBay

@Michael I've already had a chance to test it before i buy it! Not really into getting items on the blind!

I dont know if I should be the one to comment on this as I've used 10k naniwa for my finishing hone since I've started honing! On razors that are less or equal to 5/8 inch wide i really couldn't tell you but on the larger razors you can really feel the difference! It is a slow hone so beware you need to do 100 laps or more on it but I've found it gives me good feedback both sonic and phisical! For the price of 37$ I'd recommend that for everyone to get for finishing stone just fot the hell of it because its really nice!

Also I've found somewhere info that if used with slurry ( and it does come with slurry stone) it give a grit of approximately 8k, so thats what im going to try next time taking the razor through slurry than 10k than 12k and than stropping couple of hundred times!

I just ordered one that is 8"x2" for less. The place would not accept my Paypal password so I had to use my debit card but it was $32 plus some change shipping included.

Its been talked to death. And rightly so - it has no peer in the price range that I know of.

For the guys also new to honing - be warned, they cut painfully slow. Think hundreds of strokes. I prefer to do the heavy lifting using circles, interspersed w/ some 45 deg., heel-leading xstrokes. I touched up a couple last wk w/ this stone. Its decent, but for a new guy - its NOT the easiest to learn or get the joy from. Overall, for my buck, I don't know of anything that touches the Nani 12. Fast, cheap, easy to use. That said, the honorable Sixgunner has posted about the Swedish blades preferring the c12k or PHIG, as he calls it. He also mentioned having to buy 4 to get one that satisfied.

They are quite hard, so I'd recommend doing initial lapping strokes on sandpaper so you don't brutalize a diamond plate in the process. Also note that the honorable Zib - offers cut-down pcs for a slurry stone. All the fussing w/ the naturals makes me appreciate how good the synthetics are.

I got mine from here:
Buy Natural Water Stone, 8" x 2" x 1" at Woodcraft.com
It might not have a slurry with it but there's enough there to cut a slurry off & still have an extra inch on the stone itself