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Experimental finisher

Having remembered reading a few years ago about some razor manufacturers in the days of yore using ironstone and hematite to finish razors on I decided to do an experiment.
Knowing a little about the geology of the western Pennsylvania region here in the US. I know of at least two geological features that would qualify as ironstone. The first is known in local history as the burrstone ore a layer of silica rich iron ore that was used as for producing early iron and steel products. This particular layer is found at times on top of the vanport limestone and not terribly easy for me to get.
The other ironstone found around here locally are ironstone concretions which take several general forms, one of which is a dark chocolate brown form often with pockets of minerals inside interesting but not particularly useful for making a hone . This leads me to the other form that the concretions seem to take as flattened iron stone rich clay concretions.
Having found a suitable candidate I went to work flattening and soon I had a hone.
Being in a hurry a put blade to stone with a German made magnetic cutlery blade that had a good bevel but little else. After a few dozen x strokes. The razor was just catching and cutting hairs at about 1/2 inch. Of course I know that hanging hair test pass does not necessarily a shaver make but the shave must wait! Till next time
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Got a little excited this morning to give it a shave and forgot to strop the razor ugh! So after the first few strokes I put it on the strop a clean cowhide strop nothing fancy. Then proceeded to do a wtg and atg passes under my chin only since I have a beard. The shave was fairly close, mostly gentle and after the first few un stropped strokes left my skin without significant irritation. The shave wasn't as gentle as the coticule edge gives me but as a finisher this hone will get further experimenting. Maybe try a slurry or some other procedure.
Stay tuned
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Iron containing hones are not that common but they do exist. This is an Anchor stone sold by Griffith Shaving Goods some while back, and it’s cumberlandite IIRC, from a tiny deposit in Rhode Island. As you can see, it’s magnetic. It’s roughly 8k so it isn’t the best razor finisher, but you can make a shaveable edge with it.

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Steve56, That's a very interesting hone you have there! My standards for shaving are probably not as high as many if not most others here but I still like to try new things and improve my techniques.
 
So I had some time today to hone. I started with a griffon cutlery straight. Dulled it on glass then proceeded to take it to 3k on a cheap Chinese waterstone. I then began honing on the experimental hone, at first it felt gritty even with rinsing so I backed up cleaned everything and stropped on my palm. I made a light gray slurry on the stone using a ceramic sharpening rod I had handy. Honing on slurry was very nice with a slight sensation of drag and since the edge was minimal to start I took my time and really work the edge thoroughly. The slurry changed from a light gray to a light tan oddly enough while honing not the darker gray I expected but I could feel that sense of drag smoothing out. I finished with about fifty x strokes with running water.
Prior to shaving I stropped 30 strokes on clean linen and about the same on leather.
Shave was pretty good very slight tug in a few spots most likely due to poor technique. No pink in the leather and only the tiniest of post shave sting.
Edge definitely sharper than off an 8k I don't know that it would improve a 12k waterstone but may not be maximizing the hones capabilities yet! And definitely worth continued experimenting
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So I had some time today to hone. I started with a griffon cutlery straight. Dulled it on glass then proceeded to take it to 3k on a cheap Chinese waterstone. I then began honing on the experimental hone, at first it felt gritty even with rinsing so I backed up cleaned everything and stropped on my palm. I made a light gray slurry on the stone using a ceramic sharpening rod I had handy. Honing on slurry was very nice with a slight sensation of drag and since the edge was minimal to start I took my time and really work the edge thoroughly. The slurry changed from a light gray to a light tan oddly enough while honing not the darker gray I expected but I could feel that sense of drag smoothing out. I finished with about fifty x strokes with running water.
Prior to shaving I stropped 30 strokes on clean linen and about the same on leather.
Shave was pretty good very slight tug in a few spots most likely due to poor technique. No pink in the leather and only the tiniest of post shave sting.
Edge definitely sharper than off an 8k I don't know that it would improve a 12k waterstone but may not be maximizing the hones capabilities yet! And definitely worth continued experimentingView attachment 1553863
You'd actually be shocked if you started picking up random stones and flattening them. I've read that razor stones are easy to find, it's the coarser and faster stones that's are hard to find. My experience with rock hunting is similar. I lost interest in that quickly because I have a semi detached rotator cuff and I'm running out of SiC powder. I have a Charnley with a belly as big as mine that I need to work on. From the ends I've ground down, it seems to be coarser than even my Grecian llyn idwal and I really look forward to using it once it's completely flat. It's 11.5", biggest stone I own. On a side note(of a side note), this stone felt like glass when I got it. From what I can tell, with enough use, most charnwoods can become razor stones. I'm very certain this rock saw generation of chisels and planes irons. Quite possibly axes and knives as well. I went on a Charnley spree a while back but now I need to flatten them.....😔
 
Yeah I'm kinda getting that notion a couple years ago I had flattened out a piece of fine sandstone thinking it would make a decent knife sharpener maybe like a queer creek stone. sharpening with it did work but instead of uncovering new grit as I went the stone surface quickly became polished. It still cut but slowed down very quickly. That stone put a very nice edge on simple steel but what probably started out feeling like maybe 400 or 500 grit quickly felt like 10k. Its not like I don't have sharpening stones but I'm always looking
 
After only doing a neck shave last time to keep my beard from turning unruly I decided to do a full shave with the razor honed on the above stone. After building a good lather with williams mug soap I was able to do once again due a wtg, xtg, and atg. On all my face except under my nose where I was only able to do a wtg and an across the grain. Shave was quite smooth and relatively gentle except where I got too aggressive. Sometimes I get too impatient and when shaving usually manage to cut the mole under my bottom lip. This shave was no exception so after resorting to the alum block I finished the shave without any more blood. I had a little bit of burn but overall a decently smooth comfortable shave. Final verdict is the stone might give me some more but I think it would probably be improved by following up on an good ark. If it was all someone had to hone with I think you'd do fine with it!
 

Legion

Staff member
Sorry, hold up a minute Steve... it's magnetic?!

How on earth does that work when you're also sharpening / honing stuff that's also magnetic? Is it annoying as hell?
I think he means it is attracted to magnets because of the iron content, rather than being magnetised in itself? That would be a fridge magnet stuck to it in the picture, I'm assuming.
 
I think he means it is attracted to magnets because of the iron content, rather than being magnetised in itself? That would be a fridge magnet stuck to it in the picture, I'm assuming.


Ah yeah, that makes (slightly) more sense.

TBH I wouldn't be fooling anyone if I pretended to know anything whatsoever about how magnetism works. Though I've definitely got some razors that are magnetised, and a stone with a feck ton of iron in it sounds well irritating.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Sorry, hold up a minute Steve... it's magnetic?!

How on earth does that work when you're also sharpening / honing stuff that's also magnetic? Is it annoying as hell?

I haven’t experienced anything yet, the area of a razor that contacts the hone is small, especially if toh have the spine taped.

Now with a magnetized razor (if they’ve been exposed to a magnet, they will be) does ‘stick’ to a steel based DMT plate but not an aluminum backed Atoma.

The reason that I know is that when oiling horn scales, I once had the bright idea to use a strong magnet to hold the razor scales up off a surface, and the magnet of course, magnetized the blade. I would assume that the hone could be magnetized but haven’t tried it.

I think he means it is attracted to magnets because of the iron content, rather than being magnetised in itself? That would be a fridge magnet stuck to it in the picture, I'm assuming.

That’s right. All thingys with a lot of iron in them will be magnetized to some degree though, by virtue of the earth’s magnetic field. That’s very slight. It wouldn’t surprise me if it can be magnetized, it certainly has enough iron in it. And yep, that’s a fridge magnet.
 
The reason that I know is that when oiling horn scales, I once had the bright idea to use a strong magnet to hold the razor scales up off a surface, and the magnet of course, magnetized the blade. I would assume that the hone could be magnetized but haven’t tried it.


Well definitely don't try using your magnetised razor on it then, because (if I understand correctly) the razor will magnetise the stone, and then the stone will magnetise all your other razors and knives, and everything will stick together, and it'll be a bloody nightmare!

I'd just chuck the damn thing away, get it out of the house. Disaster waiting to happen of you ask me.
 

Legion

Staff member
Well definitely don't try using your magnetised razor on it then, because (if I understand correctly) the razor will magnetise the stone, and then the stone will magnetise all your other razors and knives, and everything will stick together, and it'll be a bloody nightmare!

I'd just chuck the damn thing away, get it out of the house. Disaster waiting to happen of you ask me.
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Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!

Alfredo has one too of course, being a Rhode Island kind of guy.

You can demagnetize things fairly easily, I have a home made 115 VAC air core coil that I use for that if it gets annoying. Plug the coil in, then pass the razor through the air core (the hole in the middle of the coil) a few times, et voilá no more magnetic things. Unplug the coil or it will melt down or catch on fire. I think that you can buy commercial demagnetizers, but I just used what was laying around. It isn’t something that you need to do a lot.

In the old days, many manufacturers marketed ‘magnetic steel’ razors.
 
I think he means it is attracted to magnets because of the iron content, rather than being magnetised in itself? That would be a fridge magnet stuck to it in the picture, I'm assuming.
*FERROUS*, as in containing iron, would be the correct term if that happens to be the case.
 
Well definitely don't try using your magnetised razor on it then, because (if I understand correctly) the razor will magnetise the stone, and then the stone will magnetise all your other razors and knives, and everything will stick together, and it'll be a bloody nightmare!

I'd just chuck the damn thing away, get it out of the house. Disaster waiting to happen of you ask me.
Are you a descendant of Douglas Adam's? You, very much, write like him. If so you should probably find a way to cash in on that. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is one of the greatest fiction series ever written if you ask me.
 
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