I've not noticed a post on here so if these have been discussed previously please forgive me. Recently I made a few skeptical comments on SRP about the provenance of some welsh slate hones being sold on ebay by a chap known as AJ (the Tri Hone Set). That led to him contacting me and asking if I would like to do a comparison test between 2 of the stones in that set which I had also been asking whether there was any appreciable difference in. While in correspondence AJ came across as a decent enough chap and I feel more comfortable with his naming of 2 of the hones in the set those being the Dragons Tongue and Llyn Melynllyn. I think we have agreed to disagree with his description of a one of the stones he's selling described as possibly a cutlers green but that's because my view is that nobody knows what a cutlers green should look like and I suspect that his view is that he can say it for precisely the same reason and to be fair it does match the only known description. Anyway in the end he sent me 4 stones to test. A Llyn Melynllyn (purple), a greenish slate nicknamed a Welsh Thuringian by someone on SRP, the so called possible cutlers green which I prefer to call Cambrain Green due to the area its sourced and a calcite hone probably from Belgian. So far my findings have been as follows The greenish and purplish slates are very similar although the greenish seems to produce a slightly finer edge, both produce a crisper more engaging edge with oil (GT85 which is a light oil with PTFE) while the edge with water is a little mellower. Both are slow although I did come from a 6k synthetic and start with a slurry, they are faster though than the Chinese 12K. The edge produced is a close to that produced by my Naniwa 12K superstone (albeit with much more work) but the Greenish one is slightly better than the Purplish one although the purple may be a more flexible tool as some people have had success moving from setting the bevel on a 1K then going through a dilution to finishing with it. The Cambrian green is a faster stone, the slurry seems slightly gritty but seems to break down like a coticule slurry does. Again I have used a dilution with water then tried finishing on GT85 and the edge is again crisper, bordering on too harsh. So far I've not achieved as good an edge with this stone as I have with the slates but I feel that its a more complicated stone needing some learning. The Calcite, well it might refine a good edge further but as it stands it doesn't seem very useful. It is the least tested but thats because I've not really found anything significant I think it might be a bit like stropping on newspaper, i.e. it does have an effect but its more novel than useful. I shall get round to testing it properly though but its not calling to me like the others Here is a pic of them for left to right Purple (LM), Green (WT), Cambrain Green, Calcite And if anyone wants to know, no I have no connection with the seller.
Sounds like the Cambrian green is quite a useful stone, but is it worth getting if you already own a Naniwa 12000 Nic? Jamie.
So far the CG doesn't yield as good an edge as a 12K Naniwa so in that respect no. In fact the only of these stones which seems to give a marginally better edge is the greenish slate, however it may be that some razors will do better than others on the various stones.
Cheers Nic if I didn't have a Naniwa 12000 I would certainly look at getting one of those hones, as i think i said once before, in those reclemnation yards the better quality Welsh slate would have been used on such things as Mantle slabs and fire hearths, because the slate was harder and more dense that roof slate. i'm very freindly with a chap in my home town who specailizes in archetecural reclemnation, i intend on paying him a visit, as these slate items are one of the things that break quite easily, and i would imagine there would be some fine off cuts. Jamie.
yep, I'm sure there would be. I understand that not all slate is good for honing. For example its is suggested not to try honing on the slate backing Ardennes use on their coticules.
Nic and I have been pretty much following each other around on testing these stones Some things I have found so far, PLEASE understand this is not "Set in Stone" I have tested them on 12 Sheffield razors and only 1 Solingen so far I have the 3 stone set commonly referred to as Dragon Tongue, Llyn Melynllyn, and Welsh Thuringen.. (all names are not proved) Since I personally hate seeing Grit rating applied to Natural stones and these names caused a huge stink I started calling mine WHIG's (Welsh Hone of Indeterminate Grit) So I have a Grey WHIG, a Purple WHIG, and a Green WHIG (I affectionately named them Larry, Curly and Moe) On the Sheffield steel I got very good results going from the Grey WHIG to either of the finishers.. I just started testing a Solingen Razor and and after the FIRST test I started to get a better edge off the Green WHIG not a ton but a bit better More testing is needed, (I rate every stone I test against the Norton 8k so good results mean to me that the test stone at least meets the Norton edge.... ) Each razor had the bevel set on a Chosera 1k then moved to Slurry on the Grey WHIG then a Light Slurry too Clear water on either finsher
I agree on the naming not proven Glen and I raised the point with him but he seems to be sourcing the slate from the areas where it was quarried. The Dragons tongue are cheaper from Inigo Jones so I don't see a point in lying about the origin of that slate while Llyn Melynllyn is a geographical location in Snowdonia, which literally translates a Yellow Lake, llyn being lake in Welsh. As I understand it slate produced in this area is Llyn Melynllyn slate and came from several quarries, he tells me that he is buying reclaimed slate from someone who used to quarry it in the area.
The names probably are close enough to being true Nic, and the hones abilities seem to be pretty close also, but jeez you would have thought somebody ran over somebody else's cat the way that the shouting matches started over those names... Whatever we call them I am pretty happy messing with them.. BTW 10 of the Sheffield razors were for customers, so I was confident enough in those edges to send them home, and all were more then happy, which is actually a better recommendation then just me liking an edge
I am by no means a honemeister, but I have had a similar experience to Glen, Some razors finish better on the WT and some on the LM. Either way these stones are fun to play with and the DT puts a great pre finish edge on all the razors i have tried so far. I have been only shaving off these stones for a little over a week and a half and all smooth shaves so far.
