Welsh Slate - oil or water?

[AjaxLepinski]

My Welsh Slate is extreeeeemly hydrophobic and water runs off as fast as I pour it on.
Do any of you gents use oil on Welsh Slate?
Can I use Mineral Oil? What kind of oil is recommended?

 

[Wid]

You could use some dish soap with the water to help.

 

[Proinsias]

Might depend on the slate, I've one of the purple ones from AJ which works fine with water or oil. Doesn't seem porous in the slightest. I have another vintage, what I think is a, Llyn Idwall, which seems to have been used as an oilstone long before I got it and works a treat with oil.

As for oil type I've been using sewing machine oil or baby oil - both of which I think are more or less mineral oil.

 

[Wm. T]

I saw some of these on ebay , are they a good alternative to belgian, japanese, and arkansas stones ? The price seems a little better..

 

[Wid]

Looking at the add on Ebay the seller says oil can be used.

 

[redhead shaver]

I just go my Welsh slate set about 2 weeks ago. I have been getting nice edges off the Purple and Black with oil or water. If you haven't tried it yet I would suggest finishing on a thin wet lather. I tried this on my last razor and it really seemed to be the hot ticket. The edge was incredibly keen and almost as smooth as my coti edges. I think I am going to play with the consistency of the lather and see what kind of difference it makes.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

Tried my so called 15k to finish after a coti on water, feels almost magnetic and the water froths up! The edge is smooth, like redhead said, not quite coti smooth but still nice, and the edge is a solid 4 after stropping and even verging on an HHT 5. Haven't tried the purple much yet, don't think it'll improve my coti edge so I'll stick with the welsh thuri for the time being.
Might try it on oil tomorrow or Sunday.

 

[Tony1951]

I was wondering about those AJ slate hones. How is it as a finisher? What's it like?

I nearly bought one and then held off. I've been messing about with a random roof slate and a hone I found in the garage when I moved here. That one is finer than the cheap woodworking general hones, but I've no idea how fine. It's probably less than 5K going by the scratch pattern on the blade, but since I am a beginner, that's a pretty wild guess based on a few photos I've seen here. I've been finishing up with a crox slurry on glass and using that liek a hone with forward laps, then going to a corx pasted balsa strop and finally a hundred laps on leather. It does ping the dogs guard hairs if I put them to the blade in a purposeful way whcih is no worse than the brand new Dovo I bought and kept in the box pretty much while I experiment with an Ebay special from China or somewhere.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

The so called welsh thuri is great, well at least mine is.

 

[Tony1951]

Thanks for that BakerAndBadger - I posted that before I'd got to the end and saw to my embarrassment that the question was answered later in the thread.

Cheers. I'll have another look at his thuri stones. I am sort of wavering between Lapping Film and a stone or two. The advantage of the film is that I have all the stages for a small outlay. On the other hand, the random stones I have seem to do the early stages in a way that allows me to shave quite reasonably after a good old strop, so maybe all I need is a finisher..... I'll think about it a bit more.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

You might want to look at his trihone set. The stones seem to be of different grits finishing with the welsh thuri.

 

[AjaxLepinski]

Thanks guys! I'm going to try some lather tonight and what the heck, I may go crazy and splash some baby oil on to see what happens. Thanks again!

 

[BakerAndBadger]

Thanks guys! I'm going to try some lather tonight and what the heck, I may go crazy and splash some baby oil on to see what happens. Thanks again!

She's one lucky lady!

 

[AjaxLepinski]

She's one lucky lady!

Got my laugh of the day!

 

[trick420]

My Welsh Thuri is my go-to finisher. I've been using it for over a year now. I don't slurry mine. I start with water, and I flush it fresh after 5-10 strokes. Then, when I'm happy there, I dry it off an put a couple of drops of honing oil on it and use it with oil. It's absolutely superb with oil.

I have the three hone set. I never use the other two stones. I go from coticule to the Welsh Thuri. Personally, there's not enough difference between the purple Llyn Melynllyn and the WT to justify using both. I see no difference in the edges going coti - purple - WT and coti - WT. The Dragons Tongue for me is redundant since I'm using a Coti for the lions share of the work.

Now, YMMV regarding the Purple Llyn Melynllyn though. TomJR puts an awesome edge on his razors finishing with a LM.

Jeff

 

[BakerAndBadger]

Gonna try oil on mine at the weekend, tickled up a Helly MK6 last night after the coti and it gave a lovely shave except where I tried to peek my cheek with the French point!
Also noticed the hydrophobic properties of slate last night, maybe the light I was using was different last time or maybe the water was. Still, didnt harm the edge.

 

[AjaxLepinski]

My 60x loop arrived today and I looked at the edges of my 4 blades. I was waiting on the loop before making my first serious attempt at honing.
The Bismarck and Goldedge have very, very tiny chips near the heel and the Fromm has a totally uneven factory bevel.
My crusty Wade & Butcher has a nice, even bevel but won't take off any arm hairs.
This Saturday, I'll be going to town with a set of 1000, 4000 and 8000 Nortons and finishing on my Welsh Slate. Followed by a balsa CrOxing before a stropping. Wooo Hooo! Can't wait!!!

 

[BakerAndBadger]

Good luck Ajax, let us know how you get on.

 

[AjaxLepinski]

It turns out that the Welsh Slate is a good finisher in the hands of this newbie honer! Thanks for selling it to me Rick (Wid) - it's a nice rock! I used a bit of dish soap, like you suggested, to keep the water in place and it worked like a charm.

It took about 45 minutes but, I was able to remove the small chips from the Bismarck with my new coticule. I finished on the Welsh Slate and followed up with CrOxed balsa and a stropping. The results were a nice shave, but not quite as good as my pro-honed Monopol. Nevertheless, I'm really happy with the way the Bismarck turned out and I'm going to try the slate with oil on my next session. My coti seems really soft but, it worked well.

With the Bismarck under my belt, I gave my Geneva Cutlery smiler a go but, it looks like I'm going to need more practice with smiles. I didn't want to try my crusty W&B until I'm able to get the Geneva going. The W&B has a huge grin.
So, a big thanks to all you gents for the suggestions!!!

 

[Proinsias]

Glad to hear it Ajax!

A crusty W&B with a huge grin certainly sounds like something to build up to but on the plus side if you're working on a coticule, even with a heavy slurry, you are unlikely to do much damage - I got a carried away with pressure once on a dmt plate with a old smiling Sheffield razor and both myself and the razor came away from the experience looking sadder.