Zulu Grey vs Arkie
- Thread starter jte87
- Start date
I'd take a good trans or black over a zulu any day. A well done ark edge is hard to beat
Seconded!
What about MY Arkie edges? 
I'm still seaching for the "rockviper-proof" setup, but I think I'm close.
I'm still seaching for the "rockviper-proof" setup, but I think I'm close.
I mentioned elsewhere that arks have a lot to do with surface condition.
For the price of a zulu there are other faster, more intersting stones that I would use. Just because it has a fancy name doesn't mean you will like the way it hones.
For the price of a zulu there are other faster, more intersting stones that I would use. Just because it has a fancy name doesn't mean you will like the way it hones.
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I've never used a Zulu grey, but I think a lot of it has to do with the stones leading up to the finish and who is using them.
- Thread starter
- #7
I have yet to see a honer experienced with jnats, cotis, arks, thuris, etc say anything positive about a ZG. That's a sobering thought for a stone that sells for $200. Arks are not exactly the most suited stone for razor honing, but they are excellent stones that with practice can give great finishes on razors. I don't believe, based on the reviews of others, that the same is true for ZG.
Perhaps the stones already in your collection.
$200 can get you an unlabelled thuri the size of a betamax tape. A lot less can get you a CF, though getting one suited for finishing razors is a crapshoot. You can get an apache for that. Can you get a hybrid coti for that?
By CF, are you referring to a Charley Forest? I think I got one of those but not sure.
- Thread starter
- #12
Hybrid, as in Les Lat? Yeah a small one. If you just mean a combo bbw/coti, then yeah, easily. You can score 8" vintage natural combo's for that. They don't break $200 unless they're a fancy vein (les Lat, LV) or ridiculously good looking (tons of really nice manganese), or bigger than 8x2".
And yeah, Charnleys are really cheap right now. They got stupidly overvalued a few years ago when Lynn and a few others said they were their favorite razor finishers... $300-400 for stones that sell for $50-75 today; and the market corrected (perhaps overcorrected, but maybe not). It seems there are no end of Charnleys being found in Garages and flea markets in the UK. They're easy to get under $100, much less $200 these days. A really beautiful one just ended without bids @~$75, and got relisted.
And yeah, Charnleys are really cheap right now. They got stupidly overvalued a few years ago when Lynn and a few others said they were their favorite razor finishers... $300-400 for stones that sell for $50-75 today; and the market corrected (perhaps overcorrected, but maybe not). It seems there are no end of Charnleys being found in Garages and flea markets in the UK. They're easy to get under $100, much less $200 these days. A really beautiful one just ended without bids @~$75, and got relisted.
Thanks. Sorry to be old-school here, but how do you find your edge off the 8k SS? Can you arrive at a uniform edge with it and shave halfway decently at this stage before moving to another stone?
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Don't have an Arkie, do have a ZG that I have limited use on.
The few times I have used it was water only, no slurry and it is a slow finisher.
Good results, but if I was to do this over...
We lets just say it was insured, and it was stolen in a burglary, and they gave me the money to buy another one..
I would probably chip in a bit and get a Suehiro Gokumyo 20K
It's probably me, I don't have the smarts and time to learn the Jnats/other naturals and all my time with man made ceramics from my woodworking days means that this is what works for me and I get great results. Most of the time I stop with the 12K Nan - the only mod being I will "Zowada" finish some razors - adding a 2nd layer of tape and making 6-12 very light passes on the 12K.
And looking at the exchange rate today that SG 20K is looking pretty good...
Sorry if I have drifted off topic...
The few times I have used it was water only, no slurry and it is a slow finisher.
Good results, but if I was to do this over...
We lets just say it was insured, and it was stolen in a burglary, and they gave me the money to buy another one..
I would probably chip in a bit and get a Suehiro Gokumyo 20K
It's probably me, I don't have the smarts and time to learn the Jnats/other naturals and all my time with man made ceramics from my woodworking days means that this is what works for me and I get great results. Most of the time I stop with the 12K Nan - the only mod being I will "Zowada" finish some razors - adding a 2nd layer of tape and making 6-12 very light passes on the 12K.
And looking at the exchange rate today that SG 20K is looking pretty good...
Sorry if I have drifted off topic...
Yeah, I meant les lat not a simple combo. If you get a suitable one cf is a great value right now.
I've personally tested 7 or 8 Zulus and none has worked for me so far. My current CF is awesome, after trying a bunch of them I finally found one I liked, it works great after most coticules and high grit synthetics too.
There's that CF again. I think you guys are talking about Charnley Forest stones? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
You're correct. My experience with Charnleys has been that they're excellent stones for similar uses to washita's... IE, they can recover a knife edge that's degraded significantly, but not dull (Washita's are superior if the edge is fully dull), and give it a fairly refined finish. I've got three at the moment. Two are large, soft, and very green, and are excellent in this capacity. The third is smaller, harder, smoother, more patterned, and has a 100+ yr old label saying that it's a razor hone brought from England in the 1850's... it's better suited for razor finishing, I'd say, but still doesn't compare to hard arks, Thuri's, fine Jnats, or other options. I don't doubt that there are razor-finishing capable CF's out there, but I'm 0/3, including one stone that was obviously selected to be used for razors... so I wouldn't advise anyone to buy a CF if they were looking for a razor finisher.
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Personally, I wouldn't buy one for a razor unless I knew the person I was buying from or it were spectacularly cheap
