My shave results; edge comparisons.

[SliceOfLife]

I have an almost identical stone to it as well in grit, feel and function... but it's a completely different color and broken. One of my best hones for years, was never 100% sure it was synth until I found this stone that is clearly synth and is so similar.

Lakeside is right about top 5 for me if you leave the mystery hones out, but I think there's a noticeable drop after the Panama. Still a very good hone... Witte, eh? I'll keep my eyes open.

Brackett was really impressive the first roundup I did... #3 if I remember right, but I've filtered out dozens of junky Barber's synths now and so I'm mostly testing the best of the best (The Peek-In was the #2 performer the first time around, after the Synth Coti)... and it falls towards the bottom of that pile.

 

[kcb5150]

This just came in. Synth coticule. Hysterically soft

 

[Namkcakram]

This just came in. Synth coticule. Hysterically softView attachment 1029517View attachment 1029518View attachment 1029520View attachment 1029521View attachment 1029522View attachment 1029523

What gives these away as synthetic? Are they really just reconstituted from Coticule dust leftover from mining and shaping naturals?

Also Tsushima in the background or some slate?

 

[kcb5150]

I have no idea what they are made from but they are obviously not real in person. They are porous, hysterically soft, backed with slate, they will fail the acid test readily. The back is a slightly cut down norton razor hone I just lapped. I expect it to be all hype but it can always prove me wrong.

 

[Namkcakram]

I have no idea what they are made from but they are obviously not real in person. They are porous, hysterically soft, backed with slate, they will fail the acid test readily. The back is a slightly cut down norton razor hone I just lapped. I expect it to be all hype but it can always prove me wrong.

Huh yeah I was a little shocked to see synthetic Coticules as a strong recommendation too. Your description sure wouldn’t make me optimistic about it, I’ve always had the best edges off of harder than average Coticules and I’ve never seen a natural I’d say was that soft!

 

[SliceOfLife]

They do vary in hardness quite a bit, but it doesn’t seem to really impact how well they refine. And I agree with you that very hard coticules are usually the best, I suspect largely because they tend to have the finest garnets. Based on what I’ve seen from the synthetics performance wise, I suspect that the coti dust was shifted to a very fine level... giving them a surface like an extremely hard coticule even when they themselves are very soft.

 

[duke762]

Hey Slice, got any usage tips for the synthetics? Do you let it gaze or do you keep it dressed etc.?

 

[SliceOfLife]

I clean them. That’s it.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Norton Razor Hone.


So I got the opportunity to score a Norton Razor Hone again for about $300, and I'm not one to turn my nose up at a chance to profit $500, so I grabbed it... and so You get a NRH review again.

Definitely a usable straight razor finishing hone... but if your spending close to $1000 for a razor hone... "usable" probably isn't the descriptor you are looking for.


Comfort: 40/50
Closeness: 43/50
Overall: 83/50

 

[SliceOfLife]

Oh KCB... I thought that synth coti hone I just bought on eBay looked familiar. Damn, you resold that quick. Didn't like it, I guess?

I haven't played around with it yet, but the only "hysterically soft" one of these I've had was the first one David loaned me to try. The ones since have all ran the gamut of moderately soft to slightly hard. I'm gonna have to give it a try.

 

[kcb5150]

Not that, I went on a big natural binge.

 

[kcb5150]

That one is so soft it may well be a piece of stale astronaut ice cream. It may taste like vanilla of you work up the courage to lick it

 

[SliceOfLife]

KCB, don't judge them based on this one. There's a fault right by that blue dot. I just lapped it out. It was toxic. Some kind of air pocket that folded over in the mold Im guessing. Wasn't deep, and never seen one before, but definitely had an impact.


And yeah, crazy soft... was clogging up my dmt basically instantly... had to rinse every ten seconds.

edit: Oh you saw the fault, and took a picture of it. Looked like you tried to lap it out too, maybe? You were so close... I got through it in 2 minutes on my VERY worn down 220 DMT.

 

[kcb5150]

I have an ambicut coming btw.

 

[kcb5150]

The slurry off that fake coti smelled vaguely like women's hair dye to me.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Yeah, it's got a distinct smell. I've smelled it on other old time stones but not many. Smells really chalky to me plus a hint of Tabac.

Nice Ambi. Ebay score? If so, you were quick. I never saw it.

 

[kcb5150]

I pretty much went till I got tired of rinsing out 500 wet dry sandpaper over and over

 

[kcb5150]

Yes, ebay. I never had an ambicut actually. Probably because I have never been too thuri crazed(if it is one..).More background on that coti is I bought it with that cut down norton razor hone. It was in horrific condition when I first got it. What you got represented a huge amount of cleanup already. After dealing with the norton and some other rocks I just got burned out on it truth be told.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Ahh, yeah. The XC Dmt probably my best purchase ever. I'd have gone nuts trying to flatten all the stones I've done on paper.

Yeah, almost definitely a Thuri on that. They supposedly have Hard arkansas backed ones too (the synthetic version is poured together, not glued)... but I've only seen ONE ever even claimed. Seller had lousy pictures and was asking $200... so I never got to discover if it really was an Arkansas back or a Thuri.

I've seen maybe 15 Thuri backs, 4 Synth backs, and 1 (or 0) ark backs.

Generally it's a decent bet when you find one that it's Thuri... If you can tell it's glued... it's almost guaranteed... but heck, an Ark backed one's probably worth at least as much as a Thuri backed one (rarity)... so there's no booby prize with the glued ones.

 

[kcb5150]

But I don't like selling ppl rocks in total shambles so I made sure it wasn't far off