Slurry stone for a Scotch double hone

L

lordjohn

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108
Location
Scottish Borders
I have been fortunate to acquire a Scotch double hone from a local antique dealer. Initially unaware of the nature of my acquisition, further investigation revealed it to be a combination of Water of Ayr and Tam O' Shanter stones. It's my understanding that one or other (or both) of these stones may require a slurry stone (what type is suggested?). Could advice be offered on this subject? Both surfaces need lapping from the look of them but there is plenty of guidance on this in the Miller "Sticky".

Thanks to anyone prepared to come to the rescue..
 
It's my understanding that a slurry stone should be either the same hardness or softer than the hone itself.

I think a jap "nagura" slurry stones are fairly soft and are available from various vendors. Might offer a reasonable
starting point anyway.
 
Excellent find!

Ideally, a stone of the same type is required - softer rubbers will be abraded by the hone so the slurry is largely composed of the rubbing stone, with the same type of stone it doesn't matter, nor with a significantly harder rubber, as the hone itself will be getting abraded and forming the slurry.

If you have a diamond plate for lapping purposes, that would be ideal (the extra-coarse is best - it leaves little marks on the hone but thats of no consequence - others are only recommended for proper waterstones). If you don't have one and can't warrant the expense, than one of those smaller credit-card sized ones is ideal - just make sure to not concentrate on one area when you raise a slurry - wipe it over the whole of the hone.

PS: who says I'm sticky?

Regards,
Neil
 
While slurry stones are nice, and finding a TOS may not be too difficult, getting hold of a WOA slurry stone would be quite a feat.

In addition to what Neil suggests, the stones will create slurry while you hone the razor. So I wonder what would be the harm in using a piece of good quality steel to raise a slurry?
 
That's a definite possibilty, Hakeye5! Maybe the milled side of a granite tile would work too - rough enough , flat, and harder than TOS and WoA.

You can still get TOS sticks at a few selected jewellers supply houses - they use them to smooth clock parts, etc. Price is a bit much though - a 4" x 1/4" x 1/4" was about £15 last time I looked, and of course being so thin they are quite fragile and a bit fiddly to use.

Regards,
Neil
 
JimR's post is indeed a good one, but has to be read with the type of hone he is talking about in mind - japanese natural hone stones. The TOS and WoA are quite different in composition and do not behave in quite the same way - using a softer rubbing stone on one of these means that the abrasion is carried out by the softer stone, in which case a hone of a lower grit would be more apt.

Japanese nagura stones are priamrily soft and used to 'alter' the grit size (an approximation and the wrong use of terms, I know - natural stones do not have a grit equivalent, but we have to use a meaningful shorthand in order to discuss them) of the hone, so that one hone is capable of doing the work of several hones, in much the same way as a coticule may be used.

However, at the 'finishing' stage these soft rubbers are not used - hard ones are, preferably cut from the hone itself.

Regards,
Neil
 
I don't want to tire you guys out...but why does the box of my hone say "sharpen with water or a thin oil" as though it is a simple matter to employ the hone "as is" to deal with the sharpening process?

Thanks
 
At the quarry these hones were lapped on a vast revolving cast iron plate filled with wet sand. They were tolerably flat, but could always be improved on. To see how flat it is just draw a pencil grid on it, place a flat stout piece of glass or marble or granite on the table, put the paper on the glass, water on the paper, hone on top of the lot and lap it for a bit, doesn't matter much about the grit of the paper - 220 - 320 should be OK (wet'n'dry) - as you are just going to see how much of the grid remains.

Regards,
Neil
 
lordjohn said:
I don't want to tire you guys out...but why does the box of my hone say "sharpen with water or a thin oil" as though it is a simple matter to employ the hone "as is" to deal with the sharpening process?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I think I know what you mean. You do not need a slurry stone or to raise slurry to use the hone it can be used with just water but the slurry will make the process a lot quicker.
 
lordjohn said:
I don't want to tire you guys out...but why does the box of my hone say "sharpen with water or a thin oil" as though it is a simple matter to employ the hone "as is" to deal with the sharpening process?

Thanks
Click to expand...

If you do intend to use the hone with water, don't use oil first. You can always use the hone with oil at a later date, but it's not an easy job to free it of oil to use it with water.

Regards,
Neil
 
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