Charnley Score

[Joe Edson]

Was browsing ebay UK recently and came across an interesting action for a boxed oil stone. Seller described the stone as green/gray and it was coated pretty well with oil.

I noticed what I thought was some red mixed in with the green on the stone in the pictures and thought that it could be a Charnley, was about 70% sure but when I noticed the sellers location (Leicestershire, UK) I was about 90% sure.

Took a gamble with a decent bid and won. Too bad the second bidder must have recognized it as well as I paid near my maximum bid and the 3rd bidder bid 50 pounds less than us. Oh well, pretty happy about this score. Stone measures 10.5" x 2"

Cleaned it up and lapped it (white slurry). Not a lot of red in it so my eyes must have been seeing something on the eBay picture, but I'm fairly certain this is a CF.

Had a great shave on a new razor with an escher finish tonight and am going to take it to this stone tomorrow to see how it compares.

 

[Disburden]

Use with oil and see what happens, make about 200strokes.

Good luck!

 

[natchez]

Good get! From all appearances a winner

 

[chess1]

from the edges and size of the stone it looks like CF but crack in the middle of the stone is a little not right?

 

[SliceOfLife]

Was browsing ebay UK recently and came across an interesting action for a boxed oil stone. Seller described the stone as green/gray and it was coated pretty well with oil.

I noticed what I thought was some red mixed in with the green on the stone in the pictures and thought that it could be a Charnley, was about 70% sure but when I noticed the sellers location (Leicestershire, UK) I was about 90% sure.

Took a gamble with a decent bid and won. Too bad the second bidder must have recognized it as well as I paid near my maximum bid and the 3rd bidder bid 50 pounds less than us. Oh well, pretty happy about this score. Stone measures 10.5" x 2"

Cleaned it up and lapped it (white slurry). Not a lot of red in it so my eyes must have been seeing something on the eBay picture, but I'm fairly certain this is a CF.

Had a great shave on a new razor with an escher finish tonight and am going to take it to this stone tomorrow to see how it compares.

I was watching that one myself. I thought it might be a CF, but since I already own a CF I didn't want to gamble on it just to resell. Congrats. I did pick up a Water of Ayr last week from an eBay seller that was oil-caked and I thought was a Thuringian (Was sold as a "Rasor Hone"). I'm playing with it now.

 

[Joe Edson]

from the edges and size of the stone it looks like CF but crack in the middle of the stone is a little not right?

It isn't a crack, just a discoloration running through.

 

[Joe Edson]

I was watching that one myself. I thought it might be a CF, but since I already own a CF I didn't want to gamble on it just to resell. Congrats. I did pick up a Water of Ayr last week from an eBay seller that was oil-caked and I thought was a Thuringian (Was sold as a "Rasor Hone"). I'm playing with it now.

I didn't need another one either

I now have 3 and haven't had a chance to test them yet, but this one will get tested tonight as last night I put the best escher edge I have on a razor yet.

Will see what this one does to the edge. Going to extensively test the ones I have over time and probably just keep the best one. They all look soooo different from each other and are beautiful stones.

Also congrats on the water of Ayr. I really want one of those and a Tam O shanter, though I don't think this one is as good of a finisher as the Ayr from what I've read. Care to post some pics of the water of ayr?

 

[SliceOfLife]

I didn't need another one either

I now have 3 and haven't had a chance to test them yet, but this one will get tested tonight as last night I put the best escher edge I have on a razor yet.

Will see what this one does to the edge. Going to extensively test the ones I have over time and probably just keep the best one. They all look soooo different from each other and are beautiful stones.

Also congrats on the water of Ayr. I really want one of those and a Tam O shanter, though I don't think this one is as good of a finisher as the Ayr from what I've read. Care to post some pics of the water of ayr?

Sure thing, I'll get some pics up once I finish cleaning it.

 

[Sando]

How do you clean a stone that has years of use with oil? Is it a matter of just lapping it? Or soaking it in a degreaser?

Nice stone!
...Ray

 

[SliceOfLife]

How do you clean a stone that has years of use with oil? Is it a matter of just lapping it? Or soaking it in a degreaser?

Nice stone!
...Ray

I lap them. I tried soaking and scrubbing but lapping is less work and fixes any gouges and scrapes while I'm at it.

 

[birnando]

Had a great shave on a new razor with an escher finish tonight and am going to take it to this stone tomorrow to see how it compares.

I have both Escher's and Cf's and I am not quite seeing what you are looking for here.
Both the Escher and the CF delivers a very smooth and keen edge, using one after the other seems to me a bit over the top, and not likely to produce much difference.
Mind you, I do believe there are differences between the 2 stones, and their individual variations, but IMO said differences would be minute.
Both variations do deliver edges that delivers excellent shaves.

 

[Joe Edson]

How do you clean a stone that has years of use with oil? Is it a matter of just lapping it? Or soaking it in a degreaser?

Nice stone!
...Ray

I take oven cleaner and spray it on and let it sit for 30 minutes then scrub off. Only took 2 treatments like this to get rid of the oil then I lapped it up to 1000 grit.

I have both Escher's and Cf's and I am not quite seeing what you are looking for here.
Both the Escher and the CF delivers a very smooth and keen edge, using one after the other seems to me a bit over the top, and not likely to produce much difference.
Mind you, I do believe there are differences between the 2 stones, and their individual variations, but IMO said differences would be minute.
Both variations do deliver edges that delivers excellent shaves.

I guess I've read that a CF is in the 15-20k grit range whereas an escher is 12-15K.

Basically though what I'm looking for is if this stone degrades the escher edge at all. If it doesn't it will just be an alternative finisher for me as I do like my edges taken to a higher grit than a coti can deliver, though I get perfectly good shaves from them as well.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I have both Escher's and Cf's and I am not quite seeing what you are looking for here.
Both the Escher and the CF delivers a very smooth and keen edge, using one after the other seems to me a bit over the top, and not likely to produce much difference.
Mind you, I do believe there are differences between the 2 stones, and their individual variations, but IMO said differences would be minute.
Both variations do deliver edges that delivers excellent shaves.

Like Harvitz, if I want to compare two stones shaving quality I will finish with one, shave, finish again with the other, shave, finish with the first again. If one degrades the edge of the other, this test demonstrates it in three shaves.

 

[Sando]

I lap them. I tried soaking and scrubbing but lapping is less work and fixes any gouges and scrapes while I'm at it.

I take oven cleaner and spray it on and let it sit for 30 minutes then scrub off. Only took 2 treatments like this to get rid of the oil then I lapped it up to 1000 grit.

OK oven cleaner and lapping. Some of those stones look thick with oil so that makes sense.

...Ray

 

[honed]

OK oven cleaner and lapping. Some of those stones look thick with oil so that makes sense.

...Ray

A soak in naptha is also a good alternative.

 

[Joe Edson]

Well last night I took a razor that had an excellent escher finish to this suspected CF.

I started with a slurry and did about 20 very light half-strokes on each side and proceeded to dilute 5 times (dilucharn , which BTW is how I found best to use my escher as well before finishing with water (diluesch ).

Finished with about 80 or so x-strokes on just water with very light touch.

If the stone was to degrade the edge I figured I gave it plenty of opportunity. The resulting shave was excellent! I didn't notice an increase in sharpness per se, but it was a tad smoother than my escher finish. I finished the shave with some Alt-Innsbruck (same as prior days shave) and noticed less tightening of my skin.

All in all, I think this will be a great finisher for me as I've been trying to find something similar to an escher finish (don't know why as I love this finish), and think this will fit the bill.

Next tests will be coming directly off the coti for comparisons sake.

 

[Joe Edson]

The past two days I first took a razor to a coticule finish and shaved and then last night used this CF and shaved again. Noticeable improvement and an edge very similar to an escher.

I really like this stone!