Cretan Hone - First Impressions

[smalltank]

I know Emanuel on artisanshaving.org was selling them...went pretty quick shipped to anyone..anywhere

[life2short1971]

I thought about using my belt sander, holding it in one hand and the stone in my other hand. Crazy - yeah, but I'm kind of tired of lapping it. I have about 2mm left to take off and even with w/d, it's going to be probably another 5 sheets.

Use 40, 60 or 80 grit paper dry. It will go quickly then switch to 100 then go up from there all dry til you get to the fine grits.

[Gamma]

This is starting to remind me of lapping an Arkansas stone. I did make some headway with 60x... I'm going to give it a rest for a while. Need more 60 grit paper.

[danjared]

This is starting to remind me of lapping an Arkansas stone. I did make some headway with 60x... I'm going to give it a rest for a while. Need more 60 grit paper.

Not surprising since they're both quartz (but this is cryptocrystalline).

[Gamma]

After working with this rock a bit, I can say for sure that its not going to be my first choice for difficult bevel work. It does respond to pressure well, so there is some room for creative honing but it's not exceptionally fast and I had to refresh the slurry several times to do what I wanted to do today. No biggie - just sayin'...
I just finished setting a bevel on a problem blade; uneven existing bevel and edge, pitting, chips, etc. I managed to fix 99 pct of the issues and what's left isn't worth the bother. The edge seems to belly away from the spine down by the heel, but just ever so slightly. It's fixable but I'll need a faster stone if I'm going to be happy doing it. It'll shave fine as it is so I'll leave it for now. It's a test blade so I'm not going to get crazy.
Anyway - this is a very nice stone to work with. The feedback is good, yet different than anything else I own. It seems hard to get a really thick slurry for some reason. It's not that I really needed it but I expected it to slurry up big-time. It's like a different stone when it's wet than it is when it's dry. I soaked it for about 15 minutes before starting to work and there were no issues with it drying out.

[whipdog]

I got a cretan hone from Emmanuel a while back and I like the performance. I mostly use it after my 1k. It has a wide range of performance based on slurry thickness or by using with just water. They are fragile when dry so be careful when lapping. I also soak mine before use, if not they will soak up water like a sponge.

[Gamma]

The bevel on this razor was brilliant. This stone is a keeper. Its not for everyone - I'm sure, it's no speed queen.
But for me it's a nice addition to the series of natural stones I own.

[danjared]

Mine seems to be very good at doing bevel work, especially considering the apparently minimal wear it inflicts on the spine compared to synthetics. I'm not sure how to explain that phenomenon.

[gary haywood]

my mate tim let me use his cretan hone. i honed out some pritty good wear and tear chips on a dovo micarta stainless steel. I found the hone took care of them pritty damm well with medium slurry. left a realy nice sansblasted bevel. they defanatley cut well.. maybe just va tadge faster then a la patite blanch.. to say it a natural stone i was quite surprised...

[Brownbear]

I love my Cretan. Can't vouch for its speed relative to synthetics as I have no experience, but it is plenty fast for me. Fact is I have way too many razors and I've slowed my acquisition so for the odd razor I buy now and then the Cretan's speed is not an issue. Prior to the Cretan I used a cheap EZ diamond hone and a coticule for heavy bevel work and this stone is about as fast and leaves a much better bevel for the dilucot that follows. I am very pleased and probably won't ever buy that Chosera I was contemplating for a while.

[tomjr]

these hones have gained my interest.