the zulu gray thread

The new Zulu Grey and a bonus small hone. Also the slurry stone. Both are lapped very smooth. I used the small hone to touch up my Kershaw and it put a wicked edge on it fairly quick. I'm going to work on some razors in the next couple days.



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I picked up this Russian blade back in December and have been holding off on sharpening it because I was waiting for the Zulu. I decided not to tape the blade because it looked like it didn't need a lot of work. A quick bevel on the 1k, then a 5,8,12 naniwa progression, finishing with 50 or so laps with water only on the ZG. Then 50 or so laps on the leather. The edge looks polished and felt good on the ZG. I'll be testing it later today.

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Well, after receiving the two zulus back in mid-May, I finally was able to actually drag some steel across the stones.

I had three razors that required some touch-up so I applied a single-layer of tape to each.

Two 3x8s from Zulu Grey— the Silkvein (SV) (the reddish/brown 'pre-finisher' below), and the Zulu Grey (ZG) (grey/green 'finisher' below).



Both of these large hones came with a matching slurry stone (pictured above).
The SilkVein (SV) yields slurry easily with the supplied slurry stone— a dense, reddish, runny chocolate-like consistency.


The Zulu Grey (ZG), on the other hand, is more challenging to get a good amount of slurry with the supplied stone. It's doable, but I opted to use the Atoma 600 for ease of use.
A milky, grey-green slurry...


Two distinctly different feels to each stone. The SV is considerably noisier when making laps and has a noticeable gritty feel. The ZG is almost glass-like in feel and silent.
On both stones, I began with a dense slurry and diluted with water as I made my way through a series of laps until the final laps were essentially just water alone.
Two (Solingen-made steel) of the three razors took amazingly-keen edges. The third (American-made) required considerably more attention (and laps) to achieve the same result. I'm with Glen when he observed how certain razors (makes) seem to do better than others on some stones and finishers.

Anyway, it was a good to be back honing again as I ease on back into the process....

 

Welcome back.