First hone- which should I get?

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Originally Posted by Hillie

Let me ask a stupid question: How does one "break in" the aforementioned DMT hones?

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Basically by honing something steel other than razors. I think a lot of guys use chisels or something, but I used the backside of a kitchen knife I didn't care about. Essentially just trying to hone the backside of the knife. It will smooth out the surface of the diamond plate as you hone. You just need something steel that you can try to hone, and that will break it in. You could also try lapping some waterstones to break it in, although I wouldn't try this on one of the finer plates like the 1200 grit (E) or 8000 grit (EE).

The way the DMT plates come, the initial surface is too harsh for honing razors, but as you use it, it will settle in to being a nicer, smoother surface.

Just an update; thanks to mkevenson I have a barbers hone. I've not lapped it but will this week. Anyway, I went ahead and used it as is with 5 laps on sat., stropped on webbed fabric, then red latigo, and finally vintage shell. A better shave than the Clauss was giving me. Reapeated today and an even better shave. As soon as I lap it I'm sure I'll revive that edge to where it needs to be. Next on the list; couticle. Thank you everyone, especially you Mark!

Serg

I'm not sure if you're still looking at this, but I would seriously think about getting a quality 4-sided paddle strop with diamond pastes (3 micron, 1 micron, 0.5 micron and chromium oxide), or if you really need to go more coarse than 3 micron you can shift the CrO to the linen on your hanging strop and do that.

Once you get one hone, as you've already seen you'll be "needing" many. It becomes a sickness and I would suggest unless you really want to put in the time to learn honing for it's own sake that you go with pastes.