Here I'll post the same on the thread too Waterstones do not benefit from high grit Lapping/Burnishing like an oilstone would I subscribed to the whole high grit lapping ideas for a couple of years, then I bought Shapton GS hones .. The Shapton 30k is the highest grit PROVED hone in the world right now and they sell a stupidly expensive stupidly flat plate to lap it,, yet it is a 325 grit Hmmmmm that got me thinking and testing for myself Waterstones work by releasing grit to cut steel, they are much softer then oilstones, lapping to a high grit actually inhibits the action that you bought a waterstone for That is my story and I am sticking to it.. 325-600 ish is good enough IMHO and experience (The exception to this might be some of the VERY hard J-nats that you would use as a base for Nagura and slurry)
It is at least a good starting point it should help you avoid the same mistakes I made in the past hehehehe
Time to relap my Welsh stones. They should work faster after. I guess some 300 grit wet/dry should do the trick.
Update: I had used 400 grit sandpaper to flatten and texture the Welsh Slate Stones. I honed many many blades with these stones being flattened with 400 grit paper, and it worked well. It justify seemed to be not very fast cutting. I wanted the stones to be a little more aggressive, and felt a 320 grit wet/dry paper would do the trick. So, with a newly acquired large, flat Granite tile and the 320, I reconditioned the stones. It went fairly quickly, because the stones were already flat. I did notice that the Welsh stones felt better with this 320 paper lapping. The blade I honed turned into the sharpest blade in my collection, and smooth as silk. Honing just gets better and better, with these stones, the more I use them.
Mine almost have a mirror finish from use, I don't think you can over lap these. Try them with Smith's Honing Solution (non oil based), I can get a real nice edge from the finest black stone that way
I'm going to lap mine with 320. A question for you, do you soak the stone before honing or just wet it down?
It does absorb water, just not much. I do soak mine for at least 5 minutes. I do notice it takes several days for them to completely dry out, after a honing session. It's so dense, it takes a while to release all the water, and dry out. I put mine up, after drying out for three days, into a tackle box. A few days later I opened the tackle box, and there was condensation inside.
Update: After 3 months of use, and approximately 40 razors honed, I have gotten great edges on almost every razor I have. I don't create a slurry, with the supplied slurry stones., they are too hard and dense. These just polish the stones, and reduce their cutting ability. Lapping these stones on 320 grit Wet/Dry seems to work very well. These are very hard stones, so they do not cut as fast as manmade stones, but the Welsh Slates do put nice edges on my straights. Looking under the 60x loupe, I can see they polish the edges very very nicely. I don't have manmade 12k and above stones, so I've learned with these, and I think have figured them out. The only thing I would want, with Welsh Slates is a set that was 8 x 1 inch, for slightly uneven blade honing. Is anyone else using Welsh Slate Stones????
I use mine as my finishers. I get the most consistent results with them, versus the Arkansas stones, or the Colorado rocks. I only have 1, 3, and 5k synthetic stones, then I go to the Welsh stones. I use the two finest stones, and don't really least fine. I use water and a DMT plate to slurry the stone, and dilute until the slurry is gone using similar methods to one stone honing. The Welsh slates are much faster than my Arkansas stones, but don't give quite as keen an edge. I have started going through my synthetics, then straight to the purple slate (mid grade) and then to the Black Arkansas, for just a few laps on Smith's honing solution. This has been giving me a very consistent edge, and normally takes me 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the blade.
I've not heard of Colorado Rocks. Can you elaborate? Also, do you have any links to some inexpensive quality DMT plates?
Just ask aj and he will make you 8x1 hones.he made me the 8k and 12k on request.i paid about 22$ for them both.
Just wanted to update: The Welsh Slate Stones I have been using are still performing wonderfully. I ended up using an Arkansas Surgical Black Stone, as an ultra finisher. Paired with the Welsh Slates, these razors are super smooth and sharp. Zero regrets.
I have been experimenting with my purple Welsh a little lately, and have been using it prior to either an Apache Strata, or a Black Arkie. Seems to fit in nicely there. I use soapy water on mine, so far.
Pulled the trigger and hopped on the Welsh Slate hones. Awaiting the trio to arrive. The hard part begins.
