Some eBay finds, new mystery hones, etc:

[kcb5150]

Lunes are so aggressive you don't really need much of it under your razor. They're my go to for when I want to list something as definitively shave ready on that stupid site. If a really bumped edge off of those things doesn't get through your beard, just buy a tin of magic powder and shave like an inmate...

 

[SliceOfLife]

They stopped the auction... or it expired. I would dm the seller and see

Thanks, I'll see if I can figure out how to do that my next day off. My suspicion is someone else already did what I'd want to do (offer to buy just the stone), and that's why it went down.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Lunes are so aggressive you don't really need much of it under your razor.

Yeah, I've got a cool little boxed hone with a raw back I think might be the same material that I've done some playing around with; but it's performed a lot better than the lunes I had in the past, and no label... so I'm not positive on the ID and wanted to get something I can be sure about before I did any more heavy testing.



Anyway, I need to go and cook dinner for the little lady. Have a nice night.

 

[David]

My favorite way to use a special stone is after a coticule. For whatever reason they seem to pair very well together and I like the shaves. I don't have a formula, but I'd say 8 out of 10 times I do less than 20 super light strokes on the special stone. I really like mine, but I have to be in the right mood to pull it out.

 

[kcb5150]

I love the purple lune, ssofgr not so much. Ss is really a one trick pony. It does vicious sharp. At least that is my rock's trick. It gets to stay for one reason... It's pretty.... I said it...

 

[kcb5150]

I don't think the fineness stamps mean jack either. This one is stamped extra fine.

 

[kcb5150]

I sent that french seller a message. I will let you know if they reply

 

[Steve56]

I am suspicious of all hones, synthetic or natural, that too many strokes (15-30) will 'overhone' and produce a harsh edge. That sounds like a very hard but coarser stone to me.

Cheers, Steve

 

[kcb5150]

What, the french hones? They are extremely fine, they just have ridiculous cutting power for something so fine. Will something like a shapton 30k make an overly thin, frail edge that cannot hold up of you stay on it too long?

 

[David]

I am suspicious of all hones, synthetic or natural, that too many strokes (15-30) will 'overhone' and produce a harsh edge. That sounds like a very hard but coarser stone to me.

Cheers, Steve

You can try mine if you like. I've never over honed on it that I can recall, it just seems like a very few number of strokes is all that's needed to get the edge that I want.

 

[eKretz]

Yeah I think the overhoning is just an edge that's thinned so far it's weak. Any very fast stone that's fine enough can be prone to that problem, which is why a lot of fellows recommend limiting time spent on fine synthetic hones. Coarser stones don't have the same issue since they tear up the edge more and can't get to as thin of an apex. (Unless you hone edge trailing with them - and even then some can't produce a fine edge).

On the Soft Ark subject and varying stone quality - I recall reading in one geological review that the Washitas and Soft Arks were quite wet when mined - soaked with water - this was determined by weighing right after mining and then after several days time drying out. The miners noted that the stones got considerably harder after they dried out for long periods and didn't work as well as far as releasing dull grit. It may be that some of the stone stays softer and doesn't harden like this or that being soaked with oil for decades kept them a little softer, etc.

 

[SliceOfLife]

What, the french hones? They are extremely fine, they just have ridiculous cutting power for something so fine. Will something like a shapton 30k make an overly thin, frail edge that cannot hold up of you stay on it too long?

Typically not... unless you try to hoverhand it. The reason is synthetics tend to be aggressive enough they will continue to recede the edge, which prevents it from getting overworn/thinned. Of course depending on the razor/angle any hone could theoretically make it "too sharp"... a Norton 4k makes some pakistan junker razors "too sharp", and the edge crumbles because of bad steel. But where some naturals fail is that that will continue to polish/thin an edge without receding it much at all... this leads to a precursor to a wire edge (a very subtly concave edge); that feels extremely sharp (or dull, depending on the stropping and side used); and fails rapidly. It's not due to the stone being "too fine", so much as it's due to the stone being too hard and slow. I suspect the same issue can arise if you pick out a JNAT that is ultra-hard and fine, but was binned due to not being hone-worthy due to being too slow. That said, that's not the problem I encountered with Lunes; though I was much less familiar with razor honing when I had some before. Rather, they simply didn't finish as well as Thuri's. When I finished on one, I got an edge that felt much more like a Yellow Lake or some other slate, though at the time I had no frame of reference like that. I simply felt it was a pretty bad Thuri at the time, too hard and not fine enough. Then after I sold them I learned what they were. The SS's I've tried kind of fall in the same category, but do seem to find razors they particularly like and get close to Thuri performance... though never surpassing it certainly. Kind of why I'm curious to try a Lune now, to see if I can find what makes them tick.

 

[Steve56]

Eric, That sounds reasonable.

Cheers, Steve

 

[kcb5150]

Lune final result has a lot to do with what you lead into it with. I don't mean in the captain obvious way of getting the most out of each refinement stage, more like if you lead into it already fairly pushed along vs an edge sort of in the middle the comfort is really variable. I have gone to it from salm, hum drum cotis, and I think even a 6k synth before and I didn't feel like it lost any top end for it. I haven't tried off a 1k straight to it but I'm thinking it has enough gas to do it. It's fast, you can probably use it as a barber hone with lather. It's a hell of a lot finer than any b hone I have tried though...

 

[SliceOfLife]

There was a UK seller who listed three huge lots loaded down with Charnleys a couple days ago. I snagged what I thought was the best of the three and passed on the other two (all three were great deals though), and after I slept on it, they had both sold, so I'm looking forward to seeing who got those (Each lot had 1-2 beautiful big charnleys, usually 2-4 smaller UNID/maybe charnley/Dalmore/etc stones, and two of the three had a decent sized coti each in them; I of course bought the one with the long, skinny coti).

So my lot arrived today and I really regret not buying all three. Hopefully the other two went to members here.

What I knew I was getting:
A long (~10x1" coti)
Two Big Charnleys
A 6" washita

What I got:
That Washita
Those Charnleys (one big red-stripe hard one, the other a VERY highly patterned/beautiful extremely hard example... not sure if it's an ultra-hard charnley or a Lynn Idwal yet)
That Coti... bonus is it's 1/2" thick pure coti Score
A low-mid range brown stone that very vaguely resembles a hindo at first glance, but is probably some other sandstone... soaking now.
Another low-mid range (black/grey) stone that is also still soaking
Some strange white/semitranslucent brick (~5x2x(5/8)") that I think is quartz, but I'm almost sure isn't an arkansas... doesn't even look like a hone, just a brick of quartz. Also soaking (had some black putty/glue smeared/globbed over almost half of one side and what resembled the glue used to bond BBW to Coti evenly covering the other side... appears this stone was backed or backing for something else... or maybe mounted on something?)


And, the big mystery black stone... An 8x2.25" Pierre Du Levant, clean as they come, looks almost unused (except that it was absolutely coated in black tar/oil residue)... that's probably worth twice what I paid for the whole lot. The kicker... this giant hunk of PdL... feels exactly to the touch like the tiny ~1x3" piece of razor grade I got a few years ago. Not a fault or a flaw in it... smooth as glass. This is why I gamble on these lots.

 

[David]

Very nice score on that one.

 

[kcb5150]

I don't have first hand experience but there are some really fine turkish oilstones about. I am more curious to hear about the cf stones. I can't shake the itch that I want to roll the dice again but haven't seen a compelling one in awhile

 

[David]

I saw one yesterday that almost made me pull the trigger. It was small at around 6" long and maybe an inch wide. It was a very pretty stone.

 

[kcb5150]

I'm probably going for size and rectangular next time around. Preferably that with a dinged corner so I can see how it reacted to get a better hardness idea. I figure if one is huge it's because it is slow as hell and it is meant to offset

 

[RusenBG]

It is a cretan hone - I have 1 the simillar quality - very nice midle grit stone in a 3 stones progretion .
I have 1 flea market french hone - La Lune i think 13.2 x 2.7 sm witch is close to 5x1 inch - a bit more .
Awesome and fast litle finisher tht gave veeery sharp edges with no efort .It have a methal shine and have a lot of miniscule shining particles in it .
It smells very intresting also