Speed that slurry darkens

[Jeltz]

I am reasonably new to honing and coticules.

I initially assumed my particular stone to be quite slow based partly on the fact that while honing the razor I bought to learn to hone the slurry barely discoloured.

Having honed a couple of other razors since I noticed that the slurry darkened much more and reasonably quickly, should I take that as an indication that the 1st razor is made from harder steel?

 

[Loric]

Steel hardness could definitely be a reason for the change in speed. However, some others are variables that could affect how fast you remove steel are slurry density, the razor grind, and the pressure you are using on the stone could all have an effect.

 

[Emmanuel]

My friend is nothing to do the steel is harder or less hard. The slurry discolored not only of the edge but of the spine too. As more steel rests on the hone as more slurry turns darker and as more wear there is as more steel rests on the hone.Also the thicker slurry tends to turn darker faster because contains more garnets.Finally we can say that the darkness dependent of the hone and not of the steel quality.
Best regards
Emmanuel

 

[Tok]

Steel hardness can influence that. I once had a extremely cheap plane blade (I didn´t buy it, don´t worry!) and the steel seemed not to be hardened at all. I could literally see the blade getting shorter on the hone (Ok, that might be a bit exagerat
ted… ). Anyway, how much of a difference between lets say 3-4HRC plays a role, I have no idea. There are a lot of different factors (mentioned above), that are more important, I think. When you´ll have more experience, you might see whether this happend only with certain blades or not.

Regards,
Tok