Yellow Lake Finishing Stone

Well I've bought one...

Interesting research on it here;

http://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/yellow-lake-honing-stone-t77318.html
He is Spot On..These are Remarkably Finer than an Arkansas Finishing Stone..My Surgical Black Arkansas is a Superb Stone with around a 20 K Finishing Capacity..The Yellow Lake is Finer than that..But..Remember I Said this..He Also Said its a Soft Stone Although it Feels Like a Hard Stone to Hone On..Thus..It Needs Lapped with 1000 Grit Say Every 3 Razors or So to Keep it Uber Smooth..When I Say Lapped..I Am Just Talkin a Handful of Figure Eights..;)

Billy
 
He is Spot On..These are Remarkably Finer than an Arkansas Finishing Stone..My Surgical Black Arkansas is a Superb Stone with around a 20 K Finishing Capacity..The Yellow Lake is Finer than that..But..Remember I Said this..He Also Said its a Soft Stone Although it Feels Like a Hard Stone to Hone On..Thus..It Needs Lapped with 1000 Grit Say Every 3 Razors or So to Keep it Uber Smooth..When I Say Lapped..I Am Just Talkin a Handful of Figure Eights..;)

Billy
Cheers Billy, can you ping a link to the oil you use with it please?
 
Followed this thread with interest and picked up the exact same Yellow Lake Stone from ebay.

Lapped it with wet/dry progressively from 320 upto 1.2K.

I touched up my 6/8 Bengall last night and have to concur with Billy a definite improvement to the smoothness of the edge.

It always had a great edge from a 12K Naniwa stone but there was a definite improvement following the Yellow Stone, then linen and leather.

Many thanks for the advise.
 
I think Inigo Jones used to prepare these stones for Salmen back in the day so it might be worth calling them if you want a good cheap Welsh hone they call theirs Dragons Tongue, tell them it will be for razors. I do have one of the red box Yellow Lake stones plus another larger one in a totally worn out cardboard box with no name. Both appear the same and are very hard and smooth yet cut reasonably quickly.
 
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I Took My German Made Keen Cutter Simmons 6/8th to the Naniwa 8 K to 12 K & Finished it on My Coticule & then the Welsh Yellow Lake..I Done this on the Advice of a Fellow Forum Member..This is the 3rd Razor I have Done this with Consistent Results..The Coticule is around 12 K + with Lather & I Took the Razor Off the Yellow Lake Around the 16 K Mark..:)

I Am Getting a Spectacular Sharp & Smooth Shaving Edge with this Set Up..You are NOT Gonna Believe Me when I Say this..This Welsh Yellow Lake with Oil has a 20 K + Finishing Capacity..Oh Yeah..Seriously..This Yellow Lake Stone Can Over Hone Swedish Steel to the Point where the Razor is Unusable...My Surgical Black Arkansas Stone is a 20 K Finisher & the Yellow Lake is Light Years Finer..o_O

If You See One of these Yellow Lake Stones in the Red Packaging then Get One..I Was Astounded at the High Grit Finishing Capacity of this Welsh Slate Stone..I Would have Laughed if Anyone had Said that a Welsh Slate Could Possibly have Such a High Grit Finishing Capacity..In Fact I Would have Curled Up on the Floor..:eek::eek:

The Full Hollow Keen Cutter Took a Spectacular Shaving Edge with this Set Up..The Edges are Smooth, Sharp & Like a Ghost on the Face..These Yellow Lake Stones Generally Go Very Cheap By the Way on EBay Obviously because SR Folks Don't Know Much about them..;)

Just to Add..I Can Only Talk about Mine..And it Aint Up for Grabs..:D:D:D:D


Billy

Nice wan Billy, good info there.
 
Well I ended up buying two, I will keep the best one and sell the other (maybe). Will see if both perform the same or if one is better, will be next week before they arrive.
 
Well I ended up buying two, I will keep the best one and sell the other (maybe). Will see if both perform the same or if one is better, will be next week before they arrive.
Mine is a Surprisingly FAST Cutter for a Fine Natural..As Fast as a Synthetic Hone..So Bear that in Mind..I Only Use the Weight of the Blade with Very Light Strokes as a Finisher..The Oil Sucks the Blade Down without having to Torque the Blade.. Good Luck with Em..:cool:

Billy
 
I believe the one you have is a "Salmen" stone Billy, a earlier example.
Well one of mine came today and one side imo is way too chipped along both edges to be of any use, so I took it to 600 but I cant see me using that side, the other side is fine and I lapped it to 1200, it fairly threw off some slurry and got flat in no time.....it must have been not far away, I knew this stone had chips from the foto but I fancied getting two to test them against each other, it is really a very smooth stone...like a thuri.. we shall see how it performs, I dont know when the other one is due, but it looks vgc and has a near mint box....oh! Back to the Salman thing, I will put up a foto where "Salman London" can be seen on the box, difficult to see if you don't know where to look....it is on the Steps of the item under "Genuine" and Yellow"

PS* SALMEN
 

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I believe the one you have is a "Salmen" stone Billy, a earlier example.
Well one of mine came today and one side imo is way too chipped along both edges to be of any use, so I took it to 600 but I cant see me using that side, the other side is fine and I lapped it to 1200, it fairly threw off some slurry and got flat in no time.....it must have been not far away, I knew this stone had chips from the foto but I fancied getting two to test them against each other, it is really a very smooth stone...like a thuri.. we shall see how it performs, I dont know when the other one is due, but it looks vgc and has a near mint box....oh! Back to the Salman thing, I will put up a foto where "Salman London" can be seen on the box, difficult to see if you don't know where to look....it is on the Steps of the item under "Genuine" and Yellow"

PS* SALMEN
The One in the Photo Looks the Same as Mine.. :cool:

Billy
 
Tried out the yellow lake on a slightly dulled edge after tonight's shave and it really blew me away, it left the edge better than the original one with not a lot of laps, much much faster than my escher ... in fact faster than all my stones at the finishing stage, so big thanks to Billy for the heads up on these stones. As I am happy with this one I'll likely sell the other, colour is the same but one side is badly chipped, the other is fine tho.
 
Tried out the yellow lake on a slightly dulled edge after tonight's shave and it really blew me away, it left the edge better than the original one with not a lot of laps, much much faster than my escher ... in fact faster than all my stones at the finishing stage, so big thanks to Billy for the heads up on these stones. As I am happy with this one I'll likely sell the other, colour is the same but one side is badly chipped, the other is fine tho.
Glad You Like the Edges Off the Yellow Lake Branded Oil Stone..I Was Surprised as Well..Very Fine Stones for a Finisher.. :p

Billy
 
Interesting thread! I just bought one from ebay after reading this.
I have been stropping on diamond pasted balsa until now with great results, but as many have commented it's a bit harsh on the face. Recently I upped my stropping on leather to 100 laps instead of my usual 50, and it seems to work to give a much smoother feel.
Considering that, I started thinking that the excessive stropping may be softening the edge, so I am actually dialling the sharpness down a bit and getting better results.
This lead me back to the many discussions about edge comfort and natural finishers, but my thoughts were always that it seems to be an expensive way to get frustrated with sub-par edges, so not something I seriously considered.
For what these stones currently sell for, it's worth a try, so yes I will do my best to get a good shaving edge from it and see if I like it.
 
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