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could my finishing stone be the culprit?

i noticed yesterday when honing a razor i had a near mirror bevel going from 1k to 6k and it looked good the edge looked good. when looking edge on no shinies around the edge. but when i took it to my finishing stone using even very light strokes, so light that i couldent go any lighter without my hands shaking i got a bunch of scratches and what not even after flattening it. and the edge didnt look as good! what am i doing wrong?!
 
Flattening stone might be leaving the surface of the slate scratched up, you’d be better off lapping the stone with wet/dry paper, a worn diamond plate or SiC powder.
 
You’re not going to get a mirror edge from most natural stones. If you’re talking about a hazy looking edge that’s just how it should be.
could i just be over estimating how shar the razor is. cause i have a hard time getting bbs with it and for me a bbs is a must cause i dont like feeling hair on my chin
 
I've seen synthetic bevels go from shiny to hazy in moving to a coticule. That said a Vermont purple slate used with oil (no slurry) leaves a pretty polished bevel from my experience, and I would think the green slate would be analogous. Perhaps it is grit or scratching leftover from lapping it as thp001 suggests. I'd lap it with wet w/d sandpaper on a sheet of glass up to 600x-1200x and rinse and wipe it off thoroughly and see if that helps. If we are talking visuals, as opposed to shaving results (which are the final arbiter), perhaps you changed the lighting or direction of view in using a loupe? That can make things look radically different.
 
As stated any natural finisher is not going to leave a mirror finish and never will, when lapping your finisher what works for me is to flatten with an Atoma 400 then use a 1200 to burnish and finish with a tomo as this gets rid of all those nasty 400 marks.
 
I lap my Vermont slates with a cheapo diamond plate. I used the 400-grit side to lap/flatten both sides of each stone, and then finished one side of each stone with the 1000-grit side. I use mineral oil and prefer the sides finished with 1000-grit. The edges are sharp and smooth, and easily pass HHT.
 

Legion

Staff member
I've never felt there was much benefit to lapping slates past 400-600ish. They are soft enough that any 400 scratches are going to be erased by the blade very quickly. They are not like a translucent Ark, or something of that nature.
 
With newer honers when this condition occurs, deep scratches after a finish stone, it is usually not that the “finisher” made the scratches, but that it polished off the previous grit’s stria and revealed deep 1k stria not removed by the mid grit.

An easy test, to localize the issue is to strop the razor on any good metal polish on cardboard, inside of a cereal box. 50 – 100 laps will remove all the stria and leave a real mirror bevel, 6k is not mirror. The edge will be too harsh to shave on, but you will now have a baseline.

Now hone on the Green slate, if the scratching continues the problem is the Slate, if not, you are not removing all the deep 1k stria with the 6k.

If you joint the edge, then hone on the Green Slate you should have a good shaving edge, depending on the slate. The Vermont slate I have produces an Ok edge, but there are much better options.

Either way, trash the lapping stone and buy an inexpensive Diamond plate, a 300-1000 plate is $30.
 
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