My La Lune arrived safely

Oil on my Special and Vos. I haven't had a Lune for years. The reason I'm curious to pick one up is to see if I view them any differently now than I did back then.
As for rankings, it's certainly not easy, but with enough razors; you can get to that point. For example, my Special stone is pretty significantly better than the Vosgiennes I've got. Of course, as you note, some edges will fare better on different razors.

Yeah, if you're willing to gamble on some odd cut slates, you can get some very interesting stones.

My vos wins a keenness shootout with all my other hones. That said, I think the variance with those from stone to stone is massive, which is a bit of a pita. Whatever that slate I bought is, the designation has been lost to time. I think it was Neil Miller who I spoke to that has encountered them before and his findings were the same as mine pretty much. If you see one it is well worth it.

This second lune seems to have taken on an even finer surface than the first I bought. I need to a/b them to see if it makes any discernable difference in the end.

Are all of these French Lunes purple, or do the colors vary?

I think some are the same exact material as the special stone, actually. You know, glittery, pockmarks, etc.

They usually will have fineness grades stamped on one of the broad sides. Both of mine are the typical purple variety. I've been meaning to send Nelson one to have a go as he has never used one either.

My Combinaison Stone is comparable to my Special Stone for Good Razors (blue/green metallic slate) both were probably quarried by FGBC....the Special Stones either purple or bluegreen were sold by Manufrance...

Finished a re-branded dorko on the boxed lune tonight. This stone is just great as far as I'm concerned... It gives one of those super keen, aggressive edges where you can just dab at stray hairs on your neck or under your nose with the toe of the blade and they fall away.

I think I'd go for a purple one. I don't have a purple hone, so I'll keep my eyes peeled.

kcb sent me this hone for testing and I really like it. I especially like it's the balance between aggressiveness and smoothness, unlike coticule and jnats where these two properties are not always in synch. The edges off water only are very nice but off glycerin/water mix they are spectacular.

I forgot to ask what hone did you lead into it with?

I did a Dilucot on my Hybridish Coticule on one razor and Chosera 1K, Norton 4/8K on the other.

I have tended lately to go from one of my hardest cotis straight to the la lune or go from a more typical coti, to another finisher before giving it a final push on one of these. Compared to an Escher edge, I find this hone has a keenness advantage that just cannot be ignored as it doesn't come at much comfort expense vs the thuri.

I've been trying to figure out my special stone today. Seems like it's a slow stone and polishes more than it cuts. I'm using Norton oil...maybe that's a bit too thick. Haven't tried slurry yet.

Just tried it with very thinned out mineral oil. This worked much better. I think the thick oil was keeping the edge almost off the stone. HHT was great off the stone. I'll shave with it later

Dcaddo111 said:

Just tried it with very thinned out mineral oil. This worked much better. I think the thick oil was keeping the edge almost off the stone. HHT was great off the stone. I'll shave with it later

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I experienced that the glycerine works better for me then oil....as Nelson mentioned it above already...

I'll give that a try. I've had this stone for a while...just getting around to trying to learn it

It's well worth the effort, the edges are amazing

Yeah, my experience with specials has been that they're pretty slow cutters, certainly not aggressive, as I've seen others call them.

Seems pretty dependent on how coarsely or finely the stone is lapped. Mine cuts a lot faster when lapped with an Atoma 400 than when it's lapped with an Atoma 1200. Definitely needs oil or glycerine to get a comfortable edge though, in my opinion.