Sometimes it is helpful to go back a couple of stages, instead of starting right back at the bevel setting stage, then using a very light slurry and diluting through to water again can do the job

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)

tat2Ralfy:

Sometimes it is helpful to go back a couple of stages, instead of starting right back at the bevel setting stage, then using a very light slurry and diluting through to water again can do the job

Very true. It can sae a lot of time and trouble half-backtracking, if you will. It's kinda like with polising a blade (restoring), you don't always start with 120 grit sandpaper. 600 grit and up sometimes gets the job done too.

pinklather:

Ralphy & Bart - thank you.

When there's heartburn in the finishing stages, bevel is always a prime suspect. What I keep running into is a wall of keenness approximating an 8k level. Hearing that clear water is always the last step sounds like the norm, but Yohan's early post mentioned input from Bart that it required some slurry to work - that's why the question was posed.

As always, I'm grateful for your kind help.

What Bart had told me was that I should be 'almost there' with the edge before I start using pure water. His point being that this stone would refine the edge very slowly on pure water. So, most of the honing should be done on slurry, diluting as you go, of course.

I've tried 'finishing' on very light slurry on this stone, as I find those edges more forgiving sometimes, but that did not work with this hone. It seems to require final finishing on water.

I tried it with another razor (a Bulldog - Japanese blade, hollow ground).

This was another razor that had been honed by me, but I had given it to a newbie to try out. Received it back yesterday, and the edge was blunt, and there was a bunch of oxidation on the blade.

So, I spent some time polishing up the blade a bit. Then got to work on the edge. I made the assumption that the edge was still pretty close to done, even though it wouldn't cut hair. I used a very light slurry, and back-and-forth strokes until the edge started to respond (pretty quickly, as it happens). Then progressed through to pure water. HHT was pretty mediocre.

I thought about going back to a light slurry (which is what I'd normally do), but decided to try pure water again, instead (as the edge was so close to being done). 50-ish deliberate X-strokes later, the HHT was better, but uneven over the edge (2-4), so I stopped. I'll test it before trying to refine it further.

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This brings up a few things I've been wondering about this hone:

1) For 'hard' work, it may be better to use another (softer) slurry stone, so there's a thicker slurry for coarse work. This one doesn't contribute much slurry, and the hone itself is so hard that slurry building is very slow (very like the hybrid Les Latneuses in that respect).

2) However, for finishing, the hard slurry stone may be best. I think it refreshes the surface of the hone, allowing it more cutting power.

I know there's been some discussion about whether the surface of a coticule needs to be refreshed, and I'd say that with most coticules, the slurry itself abrades the surface of the hone, causing more garnets in the matrix to be exposed, improving the cutting power. In this coticule, with a soft slurry stone, almost all the slurry contribution is from the slurry stone, and the surface of the hone doesn't get refreshed as much, making it very slow on pure water.

I had tested this qualitatively, by drawing lines on the surface with a marker and seeing if they wore out with slurry building. Over a period of several months, and many uses (even kitchen knives), the marks did not noticeably wear down.

I took this to mean that the surface smooths out, and then slows down to a crawl.

Using the hard slurry stone in this thread, I physically abrade the surface of the hone, speeding it up a bit on pure water.

I've certainly not seen as much cutting power from this hone on pure water, before I started using this slurry stone for slurry buildup.

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This is pure speculation, of course. I may be way off base here. I hope some of you more experienced guys can chime in.

Hi Yohan.I said many times that you can reach an excellent edge by every coticule but the coticules are different even thought coming of the same strata. The post pictures show a coticule and a slurry stone given by a friend as gift. The coticule identified by Bart as Les Latneuses on slate.
The slurry stone i haven't idea from which layer has extracted . On this pair is almost impossible to produse slurry. Both are extremely hard. Looking the hone surface seems under a specific angle
a reflection indicating the hardness and the dullness of the hone garnets. I am the first speaking for the hone refreshing due to these situations. Using a hone with a reflecting surface on clear water the cutting capacity is not more than 15%.
Best regards
Emmanuel

Johan, I think you've drawn good conclusions. That particular Coticule is best treated a bit as a the hybrid side of a Les Latneuses.

The one thing that puzzles me, is why you stopped when the HHT was not yet maxed out along the entire edge?

Kind regards,
Bart.

Bart and Emmanuel -

Thanks for your replies. It's good to know I may be onto something here.

Bart, to answer your question: I didn't express myself properly in that sentence. I stopped working on the blade because my daughter (Now 1 1/2 years old), needed some 'daddy time'. She's a lot more important to me than a razor.

I went back to it later and got the edge to be better. It's still a little off near the point. I think the razor is a little warped there. I'll have to take care of that before I try the razor out.

Looking forward to posting on the new site.

Bravo, Yohann for the 'Daddy time'. Time w/ the stones will come.