Thread: How many hones do you use?

Every time I hone (monthly or so), I use four barber hones and finish with Cr02. I can get a PASSABLE shave with just a coarse barber hone, a PRETTY GOOD shave with 2 hones, a GOOD shave with 3, and a VERY GOOD shave with 4... But I cannot get THE PERFECT SHAVE, which is BBS in all directions, without all 4 hones + the Cr02.

Granted, by the time I get around to honing, I have convexed my bevel into oblivion with Cr02 touch-ups, but I cannot achieve HOLY SHAVING PERFECTION without using everything I have.

So I'm curious. How many hones do you use? (Let's count a single dual-grit hone as two hones).

Am I a fanatic? Why yes. Yes I am.

DMT-E (1200 grit)
Coticule (water only)
on some razors: a paddle strop with Chromium Oxide

I hardly ever touch up on the Chromium Oxide. Usually jump back to the DMT for 3 or 4 laps, and then coticule with water again. I get about 15 to 20 shaves out of a razor before honing again.

Bart.

For a while I tried skipping the Cr02 to see if I could live without it, and I found two things: (1) I really like that silky polished edge, (2) my barbed wire beard forces me to touch-up often enough that touching-up on a hone gives me an over-honed edge. (Doing 3-pass shaves is probably accelerating the wear on my edge as well). If I have to, I can go a week without a touch-up, but I really prefer touching up every 3rd shave.

Interesting. I can't wait to see what everybody else here is doing.

It varies for me depending on what hone I'm playing with.
At present it happens to be a vintage coticule (on the smaller side) followed by a very fine barber hone (Itsapeech, I believe, although I don't have it in front of me-could be another one) followed by leather.
If the razor doesn't feel quite "there" I go back to the barber hone, except in extreme cases where I go back to the slurry stage on the coticule.
I've also been using one of Tony's synthetic strops quite a bit, lately, and am quite pleased with the results I've been getting. It's better than more than one of my leather strops, which surprised me at first. All that and waterproof.


John P.

Its a hard question. Are we talking about touchups, restoration, bevel repair? In some cases I might use just the coticule and in other the Escher. Sometimes the Norton 4K. With some razors I've used every stone I have (about 9) not to mention pasted strops and bench strops. If you accumulate enough razors you'll find different razors like different hones and respond better with certain combinations.

This isn't fair but..........

Usually one or two paths:

Norton 4/8 - BBW - Coticule - Chinese 12K or...

DMT E (1200) - DMT EE (8000) - Coticule - Chinese 12K

Occasionally follow up with 5 laps on a chrome-ox pasted strop but not always needed.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

This isn't fair but..........

Now Randy. It isn't polite to gloat.


Besides, any novice will notice that most of those hones are nothing but useless slate paving stones. Incidentally I'm trying to put in a back patio, so if you need to send me a few of those bricks, I'll clear you some storage space....





John P.

I generally just use 3 stones, a norton 4/8, & a kitayama 12k. Followed by 0.5cr &0.25 diamond paste.
If I want an extra smooth edge I strop on newspaper.

For touch ups just 1 hone, for full bevel setting etc, I use 4. I don't use pastes, never have.