Water of Ayr Hone 

Thank you for watching, commenting and the kind words too! Happy Honing!

You're welcome, and thank you for watching and commenting!

Yes, I love to watch them to. Great fun and learning from keith...

There are more than a few TOS users out there I think, lol. Yes, different TOS are finer and coarser, like the darker one in my video is coarser. TOS wasn't a grade - just a type - the grade, if present, was on the label,. There was an extra fine one, very pale grey when dry. Was called White TOS I have one now, unlabeled though. Same source. None of them impressed me as finishers but it is what it is. The black WOA proves out as being a hair finer than all, but just enough to make a change and not enough to make me wanna go that route too often. The blue/purple WOA is not in the same league.

They're ok, just not the 'to die for' type...better than average tho....good to see ya Johnny... happy honing!

Slurry on this stone was counterproductive for razor finishing.

Yes I see that , slurry with some stones speeds up the process. Also it takes the inate feeling , as of an artist to feel and hear the reaction vibes resonating off the stone to give away its work of perfection on the edge. Is profoundly interesting to me. I can never get enough of your videos as I myself am continually learning... that process is never ending and constitutes for a wonderful hobby and a great shave like nothing else can do..

Everyone is different, horses for courses they say. I don't like diamond paste edges but some say they 'need' them. Like DE blades, some swear by Feathers while saying Dorcos are bad. I think Dorkos shave well enough for me to not care about Feathers.

@@KeithVJohnson1 absolutely. Wish more people understood that in the straight razor world.

@@JeffSmith-eq3kc IF YOU CANNOT SPLIT ATOMS WITH IT JUST THROW IT AWAY

@@terrysmith4889 I could and have made my daily driver razor split atoms in the past. It's a 13/16" Wade and Butcher that I bought on eBay for $40 and " refurbished". I don't need or care to have my razor splitting atoms every time I shave. I am just trying to shave and go to work.

@@KeithVJohnson1 hello keith, may i ask which dorcos you've found to work well for you?

They can be fun options but maybe not the best options....lol

Variety is the spice of life, a little sharper a little smoother a little milder, etc - whatever works, works... thank you for watching and commenting - and happy honing!

DMT plates are very good quality, esp their lapping plates. I'm going to be buying a couple new ones in the next few weeks actually. They are different than Atomas in style and have to be used differently. I prefer to lap with Atoma mostly due to the surface style. Atoma plates are good quality but not always flat. The DMT lapping plates are certified flat, for those that feel they need it. Frankly, I was not impressed with 'Ultra Sharp' plates, they seem like a budget version of DMT. Grit rating was way off and the surface was very uneven. I could make them work, but I don't like wrestling with subpar gear. Thankfully, Amazon accepts returns easily so I'm getting refunded soon. I'm going to get 2 DMT Dia-Fine plates instead.

@@KeithVJohnson1 Yeah the Dmt coarser grits have even diamond displacement all the way to the edges. The finer Dmts don't have even distributed diamonds all the way to the edges, now that was a few years ago so they may have gotten better. I do like the xxc Dmt, diamonds are even all the way to the edges. I have the 8*3, i would like the 4*10 but she is pricy! My atoma plates are precise i have a precision straight edge (not a Chinese one) and they read flat with aluminum foil thickness of feeler gauges how evee thick that is, i dont claim to be smart and know decimal or thousandths of my thinnest feeler gauge, (i would have to look) I fine the Ultra sharp once broken in, which takes time finish (my knives) as good as dmts did 15 years ago

@@michaelshults7675 I've worn out a good dozen Atoma, and sold probably hundreds of others, the flatness is sporadic, intermittent. Some are flat, some are not. Most are not perfectly flat. It doesn't really matter for lapping stones though. Close enough is fine. Any manufacturer can run into isolated production issues, doesn't mean their entire catalog is suspect. DMT will replace out of spec plates. I only ever had one Duofine that had surface problems and I have had a good number of DMTs over the years. Have had finer plates from them without issues, recently too, but if I did receive one with a bad surface they'd replace it with a good one. Glad you like the Ultra Sharp plates but they didn't jazz me and they remind me of the cheap Chinese plates from Alibaba. I'll stick with DMTs for grinding steel and Atomas for lapping stones. If I need a disposable plate I can get them at Harbor Freight.

@@KeithVJohnson1 Every body's mileage will vary. You cannot test flatness on the diamond side really on a plate with a straight edge, it will give you a false reading, because the diamonds protrude above the surface, and any diamond plate . On a Atomo that aluminum plate (without the diamond pad/sheet) is plenty of close to dead flat. There is no way of verification that the Dmt lapping plate is dead accurate and flat, again because the 120 mesh diamonds protrude above the surface of the plate . I do agree Dmt, Atoma, are flat enough for lapping a piece of rock that's going to hone an imperfect razor(honed by a fallible person), and shave with imperfect skin . Its just a hobby it ain't the Olympics or aerospace toleraces Sometimes we make thia hobby more complex than it really is

@@michaelshults7675 I've bought Atoma's aluminum plates separate from the pads, many many times, and they're not really all that flat, or square, most of the time. The pad's RA varies, due to the materials being used, somewhat, also. When combined, things to not get flatter. They're flat enough, but it's easy enough to see the tolerances are not all that tight. DMT uses lasers to gauge the flatness of their plates prior to coating, and the surface condition, texture, RA after coating have to pass their standards. The top and back of my last 10x4 diafine was dead flat. Doesn't matter but it is what it is. As with everything, there are tolerances to live with, it's just that the tolerances are tighter with the certified flat plates. I've said it a million times, no one really needs an absolutely flat plate to make a flat stone. My worn Atomas are so far out of flat it's not funny but my stones are dead flat within .001" tolerance. The only reason any of it matters, to me, is because people keep asking me for perfectly flat diamond plates and I want them, everyone, to know the Atomas are not certified to be that flat. Their abrasive pads are attached to the aluminum with an adhesive backing by hand, that alone tells us what sort of tolerances and accuracy to expect. I also tell everyone asking that they're more than good enough but some guys just want to be told their gear is perfect or something. Another point of interest for me is that I use the dead 10x4 DMT to lap Arks with SIC, that dead flat plate makes life a little bit better.

Yes, one type of WOA is more black than the other, the later variant is sorta purple/blue. The real/1st WOA is more black is finer. They're two different types of stone it seems, or two grades of the same stone....either way, they're not really the same.

Some people say they shave comfortably off the TOS.

@@KeithVJohnson1 Of course, there are people with very soft facial stubble. I know a man who shaves with a straight razor sharpened at the level of 4000 grit. She shaves off his hair without any effort and negative consequences for the skin. However, I did not mean such rare characters, I am also not that case. I have quite thick and stiff bristles covering the entire shaving area growing in a very uncomfortable direction and I have very thin skin. I was unlucky. I bought the paired stone simply because there was an opportunity. Sooner or later they will disappear from sale.

Although whisker type can play in to it, it's really not always just a matter of how soft someone's whiskers are - I know one person using the TOS to finish and his beard is not 'soft' by any means. There's more to it than that. Best to not assume. If it works for someone then it works, there can be many reasons why something seems to work for person A and not person B. Los of stones are like this - Coticules for example.

I can shave off my white "surgical" (~_-) TOS, and I have pretty coarse hair@@sergey_ru . It wouldn't be my first choice in several lifetimes, but it's possible.

Thank you! Happy Honing!

Not Cashew, was some sort of clear spray paint.

I do not sell Cashew., I only sell on Etsy, not my site.

The Kanji says Chikara - means strength or power. Hatanaka has used a stamp that people refer to as Maruka - Maru means circle Ka is the phonetic pronunciation of the symbol. In 1996, Kiss put out an album "Chikara" and you can see the same artwork on some of the releases and swag.

@@KeithVJohnson1 ok so circle with k in middle is the maruka or best known? sorry i know this is not a jnat forgive me. but what is this new green circle on alot of stones being sold now? the stamps literally look like they were just stamped. i cant even make out whats in the middle of it.green circle with wings in middle maybe. i was also told this was maruka by a japanese guy

@@jackhere4594 When discussing Jnats - the so called 'Maruka stamp" which can only be used by Hatanaka, has 4 characters inside a border, the first character is the circled Ka, Chikara, Phonetically - Maru (circle) and Ka, kanji character. On its own, a circled Ka on a stone is not the Maruka stamp. I don't know the green stamp you are talking about, so I can't advise. Yes, this sidebar convo is outside of the video's topic by a long shot so it's best to move forward.

@@KeithVJohnson1 where can we talk about this so i can send u the new green stamp all are sayin is maruka?

@@jackhere4594 I stay out of conversations about stones being sold by others because it just pisses people off and I do not like to argue online. There is only one Maruka stamp, and you can see a photo of one on my website at the top of the "Tennen Toishi" page and you can find the definition and characters for that stamp in my Jnat Glossary. There is no new Maruka stamp, there is no other type of Maruka stamp. The only Maruka stamp out there has these characters inside a border - ㋕正本山 - anything else is b/s.