Knowing what you know now....

A question for the honemiesters....

If you had to start all over and HAD (pun intended) to limit your selection to 3 maybe 4 hones, what would you go with?

I know that's a loaded question that depends on a ton of factors, but this is looking at it from an overall value and results perspective. This is assuming they would be for light resto work but mainly for general maintenance.

I ask since I am looking for a good setup now that I have a feel for the basics and I'm leaning very hard toward the Spyderco offerings (med, fine, u-fine). From what I can tell, they seem to offer the most value and best results.

What say ye?

v/r

Allen

Never considered myself a honemeister but as this is a question I've thought about several times over the years I'll answer anyway.

Coarse hone: 1k Shapton
Medium hone: 8k Shapton or Dubl Duck barber hone
Fine hone: Vintage, Tony Miller, or Dovo or Jemico strop

Making this work requires limiting myself to only a couple of razors, so I don't need a big assortment of hones. Get them sharp once and just keep them going with the strop and the medium hone. If I accidentally roll or chip the edge then I've still got enough hone to solve the problem.

Can I count the norton 4/8k as 1?

If so then dmt1200, norton 4/8k , chinese 12k, shapton 16k.

I have a swaty between my norton and 12k that I mostly use for lapping.
The 16k still eludes my grasp.

I assume the .5, .25 micron pastes and the 3M chromium paper don't count :)

- Bob
:w

If I had to choose just three hones for razors they would be a DMT-E, Belgian Blue, and Belgian Yellow.

I looked at your post again, and the three spyderco stones are a very good value as well. I have the set and mostly use them for my knives, but they do work well for razors too. Just hope that they come flat.

Most of the time I use Norton 1K, 4/8K Chinese 12K, then on to pastes.

Norton 4/8

My Swaty

1200 grit sandpaper.

This is all I've ever used, and though there might be ways to improve on this setup I'll probably never bother. It falls into the catagory of messing with a good thing. I'm not that into experimenting and there just isn't much improvment I could want. Its also not like I do more than a razor or two in a session so speed isn't a big thing. I just like the consistance of results.

Were I you and looking for a hone I would just get the 4/8 K. It is entirely possible to get a great edge with this alone.

I'm not a honmiester, but I do have more hones than I need, so starting over, I'd go with:

Norton 4/8K
Belgian Yellow
Paddle/Bench strop with boron carbide/chrome oxide paste

I have an 800 grit King hone (mostly for knives) or wet-dry sandpaper for the few really bad edges I come across. I'm not into major restoration.

Jordan

I've just ordered 1K, 4K and 8K Shapton ceramic glass hones. I hope these can do my honing from now on. I really like the pasted paddle strops for finishing. I may buck up for the 16K shapton next month to finish out the set. HAD is in full swing.

bj

im in only since october, but for light maintanance i just use the yellow corticule, a pasted travel strop, and some newspaper. i have the yellow blue combination which allowed me to do a light restoration on a wedge, it took longer than i would have liked, but not so long that i would go out and buy a heavier grit. a bigger pasted strop would be nice as the little loom one i have is just too small for me.

DMT D6E extra fine
DMT D8EE 3 micron
Swaty or similar
0.5 green chrome oxide

I don't count a DMT D8C since I use it for knives and lapping hones (mostly). I don't count the newspaper either (which is often used).

I'm not qualified to answer this, but that never stopped me before. :D

In this order:
I'd keep my Norton 4k/8k combination stone. What a workhorse
My Honemaster barber's hone (now that I've got it working for me. heh, only took two years.
I'd get a good 1k waterstone. I'm too lazy to replace my cheap Chinese kitchen hone, mostly because I don't have much cause for it as a razor shaping tool. It's jumpin' on my kitchen knives.

I'd also like to work with a high quality Belgian coticule and a blue to see how they work, but I suspect those are simply replacements for the stones I've got and a matter of personal preference in any case.

X

1000 grit DMT
Norton 4k/8k
Japanese Natural

That's all you need for most razors IMHO

DMT, D8E, 1200 Continuouse (for establishing bevels)
Belgian Blue,
Belgian Yellow

* Yes, you could throw in all kinds of other stones, but these will work for just about anything.

I'd keep my belgians. They work GREAT and I've never needed anything else.