Panama "petrified wood"

[SliceOfLife]

Got a Panama "petrified wood" hone last week.

Coarse side pretty damaged and looked like it may reach through to the fine side, so got it for starting bid. Lucked out and the fine side is not actually damaged at all.

Due to moving, most of my stuff is packed, but fished out a razor and gave it a test.

1. Razor was shave ready but unknown finish.
2. Did 51 passes on the "petrified wood"
3. Doesn't feel like petrified wood. Didn't feel like anything hard/glassy. Feels like pottery/clay.
4. Didn't produce any noticeable swarf.
5. Shave was a dead ringer for a decent coticule shave. Very noticeable in action (not hot knife in butter), but didn't struggle or snag. High comfort and very good but not too notch closeness.
6. Need a proper (8k to finish) test before I judge it. Either this razor had a coticule finish and the stone does next to nothing or it's similar to a coti finish.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Interesting. I never even thought that someone would use petrified wood for a hone.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I don't think it's actually petrified wood. As I recall, the original instructions refer to the fine side as the "petrified wood" side. I'm leaning towards marketing.

 

[duke762]

Some where in the archives of hone lore, I believe that I read, that some Panama hones were indeed petrified wood, at one time. I think Black Palm was mentioned also. Petrified Black Palm's different grain structure may be better than the petrified coniferous wood I tried. I think my wood may have been punky at some point causing it to randomly shed particles while in use. The good parts were very similar to stones in the black/trans family, IMHO. I thought it showed quite a bit of promise and I hated to give up on it as a hone. It sure looks pretty polished up. Fairly translucent too. Might look great with a back light....

 

[Bowmaker]

Sounds like you might be able to see cell structure under magnification.

How to Identify Cell Structures

Identifying cell structures from magnified images can be a challenge. Cells can be identified from their cell membrane, but smaller structures require TEM images. Micrographs of cell organelles permit the identification of even the smallest structures such as centrioles in a systematic approach.

sciencing.com

 

[SliceOfLife]

So, touched up four more razors with it. Today's shave was a Griffith manganese. Shave was good... Felt like maybe the nice Spyderco UF from the blind test I did (about to look in that thread and figure out what edge I was touching up)... Or maybe the 0.1mu after a few light passes on a coticule to soften it up.

Curious to see what previous edge was and to see how the other razors do.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Just checked. It was a good UF edge prior... Looking like this stone does veeeery little. Still haven't gotten a chance to try 8k to it, but that'll be coming.

 

[Steve56]

I suspect that it’s like an Ark, the finish is the grit. But I don’t know that ….

 

[SliceOfLife]

So, I shaved off four total razors after that one, all were different razors from my razor comparison thread (edit: after checking that thread, only two actually were) that were touched up on the petrified:

1:Good but a little wirey (edit: actually was not part of the tests I thought it was, so no clue what prior edge was... but from the feel of it, I'd guess PROBABLY one of the agates I tested when I was buying and testing a bunch of those)

2: Pretty dull - This one was a not super-great Oil-coti edge... Still a notable downgrade.

3:Good but feels like a little beat up jnat/thuri type edge (step down from those) - (This one again was not actually from the comparison test like I thought either, but I'm pretty sure it was a Thuri edge, in which case, a definite downgrade)

4:Ok-ish but nothing special. - This was actually an Ark finish before the Panama hit it, definitely a downgrade.

Just in general, going to say I'm not in love with the stone, but it could work as a frequent touch up stone for a well finished razor if you don't have a finisher as good as what your razor was finished... ie if someone else finished it for you.

Seems decently competent as a touch up, but in general... certainly no better than the fine synth version of the panama, and I'd argue it's actually noticeably worse in performance, and massively worse in speed.

Still planning an 8k to it test once I get my 8k unpacked.