Welsh Dragons Tongue Honing Slate

Welsh Dragons Tongue Honing Slate - Extra Large with Slurry Stone

This is the famed welsh honing slate known as the Dragons Tongue Hone.  It is much larger than the usual offerings of this stone, measuring an enormous 10 iches x 3 inches x 0.5 inches (250mm x 75mm x 12mm) - this makes for faster cutting as less laps will be required than on the more commonly encountered 8" x 2" version.  As well as being much larger than the 8" x 2" version, this one has a useful rubbing (or "slurry") stone measuring 3" x 1" x 0.5" (75mm x 25mm x 12mm) - the purpose of this small stone is to raise a "slurry" on the larger stone by rubbing it evenly over the larger stones surface.  This slurry makes an abrasive paste that makes the honing go much quicker.  Using a slurry also gives a slightly coarser edge, so the final polishing should be done with just clear water in order to get the keenest edge possible.

The stone is supplied as it arrives from the welsh mine - it has been milled flat, but the milling is a bit coarse and the stone should be lapped on a diamond plate or successively finer grades of wet'n'dry paper until the suface appears very fine and silky - then the slate will deliver its best edges.  This hone is not to be confused with ordinary slates - it is a special variety especially suitable for honing/polishing the edges of razors.  It owes its remarkable cutting qualities to the high mica content.  Note that this size hone is a special order from the mine and does not fit into the small boxes usually supplied by the mine, so it comes unboxed but is in new and unused condition.

It is a 100% natural stone, so giving it a grit rating is not very helpful - some will be finer than others.  I have used these hones for some time and find that they give quite a good edge for shaving - I have used one after a Norton 8000 grit stone and found that it improved the edge, giving a good, smooth shave after 40 - 50 laps (NB: the amount of laps vary according to how finely the stone is lapped - left quite coarse it cuts very fast, left smooth and silky its cutting rate decreases but the edge gets more refined).   Of course, opinions differ as to an equivalent grit rating for this stone - some rate it as low as 6,000 grit - not that I have ever had one as course as that!  Perhaps that person used it in its milled condition?!

If a chrome-oxide pasted strop is used too, an exceptionally smooth shave results!

Packaged weight will be around 1 kg