Thread: Newbie has a question ???

This is my first post ... So HI ALL

I've been lurking around a few sites on and off for past year. I've always had an attraction to the straight razor. I've been getting a shave with a disposable staight at the barber along with my haircut for years as a little luxury. Though by all accounts a proper straight cannot be compared with a disposabe straight at all for comfort or quality of shave. I was happy with the barber shave though, anything better is a bonus.

But straights aren't something you find in a shop too often and had never managed to stumble across one. Probably a good thing as I would certainly have ruined it very quickly. In the past year or so I've picked up so much info about the sharpening and care of them that I certainly won't be doing what a friends brother did to one just recently. He bought what he though was an expensive razor at $60, then in awe of its sharpness started slicing through paper and thin cardboard. When it came to shaving with it, he said it was crap and a waste of money ... "hurt like hell"


But anyway, enough with all that ... to my question.

What is the ideal hone setup given the following parameters.

1. Money not an issue.
2. Consistency is important
3. Result is key.


Now to elaberate.

By "Money not an issue" I mean $500 for hones, a strop, lapping plate etc isn't a stretch. My wife has a Kanetsune Damascus kitchen knife set that I could touch up with the hones as well, kinda justifies the expense I guess, or that's what I could tell her

Consistency is important. When I started researching I got the impression that the Belgian Coticule was the bees knees. I was considering ringing to check stock on a yellow/blue combo stone. Then I came across a review on a certain other site showing a dozen of these and stating all the differences between them. I understand they're a natural product and hence all a little different but if the same result can be achieved with a synthetic stone only more consistenly I'd probable go that route. Then again the differences mentioned may be like rating something 97/100 as opposed to 99/100

Now the result. This is a tricky one as I don't want to offend anyone. As with any enthusiast site people get so drawn into it that they they'll start saying things like "you have to do such and such as any other way is just no good" This is an objective statement and is sometimes dependent on one's enthusiasm for the hobby rather than actual result. For instance could the average person tell a razor that had been professionally honed up to 8k then stropped versus one that had been honed to 16k and stropped ??

I don't want the law of diminishing returns to come into play and end up buying extra hones that I don't really need just to achieve a result that I won't really notice. I don't want to polish that last little 8k scratch off the blade just for something to do if you know what I mean.

So far I'm thinking along the lines of Shapton GlassStones, say 2k, 4k & 8k or perhaps 4k 8k & 16k?. Maybe I just two stones or perhaps four. Read somewhere that Naniwa stones leave a more polished surface as opposed the the matt surface left by the Shaptons. From someone who has tried these, is this true, false or makes no noticable difference?


Now I don't own a straight yet, but I WILL buy one, probably something cheap and nasty that I'll practice my honing with. Millions of men have shaved with a straight and I see no reason why I can't. I've done a fair bit of research and I'm yet to read a single post where the auther claims to get a better shave from a Mach 3 or an electric. The real attraction for me is to learn to sharpen a piece of metal to the point where I can shave with it. That along with the fact that I love simple objects made to ridiculously high standards for what they do for no other reason than "because I can". So I could see myself buying a Zowada, Ellis or Williams. But untill I'm happy that I can hone to a high standard I'll stay with the afformentioned cheap and nasty.

Sorry for the long post, but I did do my research and this is the only subject that is a sticking point at the moment. Don't want to do things backwards and buy a really expensive razor, then a brush and soap and strop then come here asking what a hone is.