# Chinese Guangxi stones



## icanhaschzbrgr (Oct 2, 2013)

While browsing some Russian knives forum I've stumbled upon a post about selling natural Chinese sharpening stones named Guangxi. 







Seller claim they have a grit around 12-15k. 
While they are probably better used for sharpening razors then kitchen knives, seller writes that knives also benefit from those stones.

So I wonder if anyone here has any experience with such stones. Seller ask around 70$ including shipping and I wonder would it be worth it or not :scratchhead:


I've also found a rather old review of those stones comparing them to Shapton Pro for finishing razors. It's in Russian but there are quite a lot of pictures, including magnified edge after sharpening, so it still might be useful.


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## tk59 (Oct 2, 2013)

IIRC, these stones were a serviceable, inexpensive option for a higher grit stone but they are very slow cutting and very hard, thus not great for knives (or anything IMO). I think they are more expensive now and I wouldn't buy one even when they were cheap.


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## XooMG (Oct 2, 2013)

Guangxi refers to the source location (Guangxi province), but the brand names vary as the product is pretty generic.

In English, you'll find discussions of the Chinese 12k, commonly called the CHUG (Chinese hone of unknown grit) or PHIG (people's hone of indeterminate grit). The previous poster described them as very hard and slow and that seems to reflect much of what you'll find on it, especially among razor users.


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## mainaman (Oct 2, 2013)

The grit is unknown, the hardness vary, but in general those are finishing stones by nature. Those are very popular among the razor honers, and can be found in Woodcraft stores.
For razors use, one has to find the right stone and even then there are much better, albeit more expensive options out there.


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## SpikeC (Oct 2, 2013)

You can buy those for 25 bucks at Woodcraft.


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## cord_steele (Oct 2, 2013)

I use one of these to hone used double-edged razor blades. Back in the 30's and 40's there were all kinds of devices sold to restore these blades, mostly because many people couldn't afford to buy new ones. I don't have that problem, but it's a lot of fun to bring an Iridium Super back to life after 5-6 shaves.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Oct 3, 2013)

Thanks guys!

While those stones seems of almost no interest to me now, I find the abbreviations to sound quite fun  CHUG and PHIG. Like the names for twin brothers


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## knyfeknerd (Oct 3, 2013)

Yeah, I have one and it really sucks. I cuts very slow, except for the spots where it scratches and gouges.


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## franzb69 (Oct 3, 2013)

i have one of these too. they suck. super slow.


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## ptolemy (Oct 4, 2013)

I have 1 of those. I use it as a nagura and to raise slurry and cleanup my 6k stone.

As others have said, they are very hard and slow. They may work as final polishers for knives but I think they may require high level of experience.


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## ThEoRy (Oct 4, 2013)

You have to flatten this one with a diamond plate, then refine it with a higher grit diamond plate. This helped it to work much better. After that, it still cuts sloooooooowwww. I've only used it for my strait razors and have gotten mixed results. This could be because I'm just inconsistent with honing razors though. In any case I wouldn't recommend it for knives.


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