Thread: 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

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.