I bit the bullet and bought these three, it should be here in a couple of weeks. Its much more than I wanted to spend on a hone, but Oh Well. $77 + $32 shipping. I truly hope my razors appreciate these. I do hope I didn't make a mistake. Can anyone share their experiences with these stones?? Any recomendations for a Lapping stone. LARGE NATURAL WELSH SLATE TRI HONE RAZOR SHARPENING STONE SET OF 3 HONES EACH HONE IS 8" X 3" aprox THE SLURRY STONES WILL BE THE SAME WIDTH AS THE HONES !!!! as talked about on the forums!!!! THESE HONES HAVE BEEN COMPARED TO ESCHER'S & COTICULE HONES ON THE FORUMS !! BY EXPERIENCED RAZOR USERS !!!! NATURAL WELSH SLATE TRI HONE RAZOR SHARPENING STONE SET OF 3 HONES YES YOU GET ALL 3 HONES INCLUDING 3 SLURRY STONES !!!! EACH HONE IS LAPPED ON BOTH FACES AND TESTED BY ME !!! LAPPED FLAT ON BOTH LARGER FACES EACH HONE IS 200 MM X 76 MM aprox PLEASE VIEW RECENT FEED BACK AND SEE WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE DT & LM !!!! ALL THREE HONES SLURRY WELL WHICH AIDS CUTTING AND GRIT ONLY BEEN USED WITH WATER TO TEST BUT CAN BE USED WITH VERY FINE OIL ALL THE SLATE HAS BEEN SOURCED BY ME FROM NORTH WALES THE DARKER STONE ON THE LEFT IS DRAGONS TONGUE(8-10K) 13 MM THICK aprox THE MIDDLE STONE IS PURPLE LLYN MELYNLLYN(12k), 16MM THICK aprox THE STONE ON THE RIGHT IS A VERY DARK GREY BLACK SLATE (15K+) 20MM THICK aprox THE HONES CAN BE USED WITH WATER OR FINE OIL THE SLATE HAS BEEN COLLECTED BY ME FROM VARIOUS SOURCES IN NORTH WALES ( 380 MILE ROUND TRIP) PEOPLE ASK ME IF THIS IS VINTAGE SLATE !, WELL IT IS ABOUT 500 MILLION YEARS OLD THIS IS AN IDEAL SET TO USE AS A SYSTEM OR ON THERE OWN I HAVE BEEN USING NATURAL SLATE FOR SHARPENING FOR OVER 25 YEARS
That's a lot of shouting and exclamation points in the description! Found this on the subject: old TSD thread
I know, it hurts my ears just reading it. I just cut and pasted the sellers comments. I just read the old thread. I will be keeping my fingers crossed. Any advice on a reliable inexpensive lapping/flattening stone, to keep these nice and flat?
For me the grits are NOT what they say, that said you can shave off them, I did not have fantastic results when I used them (BUT please understand that was a few years ago when I started out honing, so my skill level was NOT good.) I have never revisited the set maybe I should, but I am so used to using some more expensive/exotic stones Charnley Forest and J-Nats, and happy with what they do for me, that I dont really deviate from my set up much. I have read a few threads about them on other sites, and the overall opinion seemed to they are a useful set, and will hone a razor to a shave ready state, which is all that really matters I suppose. I used only water with mine but I hear when Smiths honing solution will add a finer edge, I tend not to slurry, no reason just me. I tend to lap on Coarse DMT or wet/dry sandpaper to 400 grit , they tend to fairly flat so not much work will be required. Hope that has helped you a bit. I tend to use a vintage Welsh slate as a Pre finisher (I only use the vintage one as its bigger than the tri hone set ones that I have)
I have used a few. The first one I was really impressed with, it is the purple one, so I bought one. It is not anywhere near the same as the first one I used. Mine is very very slow. It does eventually impart a nice smooth shaving edge. Natural rock can vary a lot in a small area. No two naturals are exactly alike.
I bought a Llyn melynllyn of the same seller.very good stone,and easy to get a good result.using it as a finisher after naniwa 12k.getting very sharp and comfortable edges with it.the two other slates i have no experience with.
I have this set. I find them useful as mid-grade stones, but haven't been working with them much recently for razors. The lowest grit one puts an awesome polish on my leatherworking tools. His grit ratings are optimistic. I lapped mine with Wet/Dry sandpaper and a flat piece of stone. I have touched them up with a DMT.
Well, I honed two Japanese Swedish/Silver Steel razors yesterday. I will say that these stones performed great. They both took the razors to a very very nice edge, that seemed like it needed little work on the strop(but I did strop them well). The edges were fantastic, with one being superb. Yes, I would recommend this seller, and his Welsh Stones. http://www.ebay.com/sch/aj_1001/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= The Stones were well lapped on both sides, and beveled as well. Each came with a good chunky slurry stone. I expect these to perform even better with time and experience.
I have a set Had them for a few years now I like them I do NOT like the inaccurate made up names nor the made up grit ratings.. Yes it is a pet peeve of mine, but hey they work and give a CCS on many razors I call them WHIGS "Welsh Hones of Indeterminate Grit Grey WHIG Purple-ish WHIG Green-ish WHIG
Yes, I've heard that before. But, I have somewhat limited funds, and a need to tinker. Since I don't have any of the very expensive hones, I haven't been disappointed by these yet. I decided to roll the dice and learn with them as much as possible. I plan on getting the most out of these stones as possible. So far, I am happy with the results, and I am going to hone a couple of razors on them today. Unless the wife whips out a "honey do list".
I've decided to lap the stones even more than they already were. Both sides came lapped, from the shipper, but had very tiny lapping marks, from what I can only guess was a mechanical lap[ping machine. They were so slight that they couldn't be felt with my fingers, or my nails. I decided to take it a step further, and lap with 400 grit 3M wet/dry, then 1500 grit wet/dry. I decided on doing only one side of each stone. now the lines are gone, and the stones are beyond BBS.
I have a dragon's tongue, and it's no Escher, lol. ^^^ ...and so, yet another post comparing it to an Escher. They are finer than any stone you will pick up at a hardware store, but a bit short of any vintage conundrum finishing or barber's hone. I pulled mine out of my razor hone collection and reserve it specifically for sharpening my Theirs Issard kitchen knives. For what I use it for, it is a fantastic hone, and worth every penny.
I just looked up the price of the Escher, WOW!!. Very expensive hones, relatively speaking. Also, the Drangons Tongue is only rated at 8K, I don't know what the Eschers are supposed to be. I do know that the other two stones are a much higher grit. They say 12K+, and 15K+ subjectively. Then again, I don't have a proven high end Hone to compare the Welsh stone with.
I use a Coticle that I picked up at a yard sale as my finishing stone. It's yellow on one side and slate green on the other, a natural stone. Or I use a black barber hone for my straight razors. Escher's used to be cheap. The quarry where they came from has all but exhausted the available veins, so what is on the market is pretty much all there is...and that goes for all Thuringian stones (Escher is just one brand of those stones). The Welsh stones under discussion here remove material quickly, but not so quickly that you will shorten your blade's usable lifespan. Which is what really matters to me. 8k sounds about right to me. Most Western kitchen knives get sharpened with 4k stones, Japanese knives get sharpened with 12k stones. My preference is in the middle ground.
Big questions for the experts. Is it possible to lap these stones too much? I used 400 grit wet/dry, then 1500 grit. After the 1500 grit, they feel very very smooth and polished. Should I have just stuck with the 400 grit?
