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Those who frequent this forum may remember my post a couple of weeks a go when i was looking to replace the lapping film in my honing armoury with some new stones, which i did opting for the King 6K and a Chinese natural stone (cnat), along with the King i also purchased a synthetic 12K Nagura stone as various reading suggests that the King should either be used with a slurry or have the surface dressed periodically with a Nagura.
Anyway as you do when you get new toys you want to play with them as soon as possible, so i had a razor that was due a trip to the hone and one that needed honing from scratch, and i duly put them to the hones. My initial excitement was soon tempered when i couldn't get either of them to a point i was happy with without still using the 1 micron lapping film.
So yesterday i tried something different, i had a razor that needed honing from scratch, i set the bevel as normal on the 1K moved on to the 3K and then 6K, so far so normal. However when the 6K started to show swarf getting embedded in the surface i rubbed it down with the Nagura and then raised a slurry with the Nagura, the first couple of edge leading strokes just didn't feel right, so i flipped the blade and continued with spine leading strokes, as you would if you were stropping, and continued like this watering down the slurry every few laps until it was near enough plain water again.
Then it was time to move on to the cnat, every bit of reading i have found on the web says that you'll need a minimum of 50 laps, most suggest at least a 100, and online opinion is fairly divided between those that dismiss them out of hand and those who believe that they are actually a reasonable, if some what soul less, finishing stone. So i first cracked on with traditional edge leading laps, i went to about 120 and then finished with about 30 spine leading laps, then stropped as per my usual preference.
At this point on the two previous occasions that i had used my new stones i was filled with disappointment as the blade refused to tree top any hairs on my arms or legs at all, not this time hair tips were pinging off all over the place, and this mornings shave with the razor was sublime.
Needless to say i am now looking forward to trying this method out on some of my other razors to see if the results are similar, if so then i can certainly see the cnat as being a viable finisher, even if it does require a bit more effort.
Anyway as you do when you get new toys you want to play with them as soon as possible, so i had a razor that was due a trip to the hone and one that needed honing from scratch, and i duly put them to the hones. My initial excitement was soon tempered when i couldn't get either of them to a point i was happy with without still using the 1 micron lapping film.
So yesterday i tried something different, i had a razor that needed honing from scratch, i set the bevel as normal on the 1K moved on to the 3K and then 6K, so far so normal. However when the 6K started to show swarf getting embedded in the surface i rubbed it down with the Nagura and then raised a slurry with the Nagura, the first couple of edge leading strokes just didn't feel right, so i flipped the blade and continued with spine leading strokes, as you would if you were stropping, and continued like this watering down the slurry every few laps until it was near enough plain water again.
Then it was time to move on to the cnat, every bit of reading i have found on the web says that you'll need a minimum of 50 laps, most suggest at least a 100, and online opinion is fairly divided between those that dismiss them out of hand and those who believe that they are actually a reasonable, if some what soul less, finishing stone. So i first cracked on with traditional edge leading laps, i went to about 120 and then finished with about 30 spine leading laps, then stropped as per my usual preference.
At this point on the two previous occasions that i had used my new stones i was filled with disappointment as the blade refused to tree top any hairs on my arms or legs at all, not this time hair tips were pinging off all over the place, and this mornings shave with the razor was sublime.
Needless to say i am now looking forward to trying this method out on some of my other razors to see if the results are similar, if so then i can certainly see the cnat as being a viable finisher, even if it does require a bit more effort.
