Thread: Touching up and maintaining a fresh edge

I'm aware, I just realized that 'clean up' is too open to interpretation. Especially if one has read about standard practices for hone prep that almost always start with lapping any new-to-you hone. So I took the opportunity to clarify what I meant.

Quarter Nortons are the dumbest "get rich quick scheme" going. Their size alone is a severe handicap , but combining that with blatant lies (aka, "alternative facts") about surface area as compared to the average barber's hone absolutely disgusts me. Excellent of you to point this out, Utopian.

For roughly $60, I'm sure someone could find a used WHOLE Norton 4/8k. Heck, 2 eBay sellers offer a new Norton 4/8k stone for $85 (with free shipping), so the vendor is selling 1/4 of the hone at 71% of the brand-new cost for a whole one!!

Best thing in my opinion for maintaining an edge is to learn how to strop effectively, and this includes palm-stropping at the finish as needed. Apart from a decent leather piece, pick up a Solingen dedicated linen strop, line one face with the Solingen red paste and the other with the Solingen white paste. The three will keep you going for a long, long time.

I haven't tried the Norton line with razors, but 1-1/2" x 4" as a honing format for razors isn't to be dismissed entirely, especially at the finish with natural stones. Most of the guys on the forums seem to be bench-honing their razors, but hand-held, which is how I hone my razors, the format size can diminish significantly, and remember that a ubiquitous folding 5/8 straight razor is not that much larger than a pocket knife. That said, 1-1/2" x 4" is a bit tight as a format.

If one was inclined to start out small, and from my own experience in using smaller, hand-held stones, I would be inclined to suggest a 1k/3k Suehiro combo synth at 40mm x 130mm, followed by a 40mm x 125mm coticule, or a no.7 bout, followed by the red paste/white paste linen strop I mentioned and a piece of leather. Another option would be a 2" x 6" soft/black hard Arkansas combo, again followed by the red paste/white paste before leather.

Originally Posted by Marshal

Yes, the M5 is different from the Kuromaku. With the M5 only 1/4" is honing material. The Kuromaku is %100 honing material. I don't know what the difference in performance would be, I've never used the M5.

The difference is about 10mm
The Pro & M5 are the same/similar abrasive so the m5 is a good stone for first timer due to cheaper cost but with the same proviso, you need a light touch.

Well, for $60 it's actually the whole Norton line. 1/4 Norton lapping stone (which needs to be flattened itself before use and regularly during...), 220/1,000 and 4/8. But that doesn't make it much better. The 220 side is virtually useless. And without knowing about the lapping stone, and having a way to get/keep it in shape the lapping stone is useless too.

When I bought my first 4/8 I think I paid half the normal cost because I found one that was damaged during shipping. My razors didn't know the difference because they never touched the nicked parts of the hone. And eventually that got lapped away anyhow. You'd never know looking at that stone today that it was a damaged hone. You would know the fool in charge of maintaining it (me) couldn't lap it even to save his life though.

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

Best thing in my opinion for maintaining an edge is to learn how to strop effectively, and this includes palm-stropping at the finish as needed. Apart from a decent leather piece, pick up a Solingen dedicated linen strop, line one face with the Solingen red paste and the other with the Solingen white paste. The three will keep you going for a long, long time.

I haven't tried the Norton line with razors, but 1-1/2" x 4" as a honing format for razors isn't to be dismissed entirely, especially at the finish with natural stones. Most of the guys on the forums seem to be bench-honing their razors, but hand-held, which is how I hone my razors, the format size can diminish significantly, and remember that a ubiquitous folding 5/8 straight razor is not that much larger than a pocket knife. That said, 1-1/2" x 4" is a bit tight as a format.

If one was inclined to start out small, and from my own experience in using smaller, hand-held stones, I would be inclined to suggest a 1k/3k Suehiro combo synth at 40mm x 130mm, followed by a 40mm x 125mm coticule, or a no.7 bout, followed by the red paste/white paste linen strop I mentioned and a piece of leather. Another option would be a 2" x 6" soft/black hard Arkansas combo, again followed by the red paste/white paste before leather.

Pretty much in agreement with this. Particularly what I underlined. It can be done on a 1.5 x 4" stone but...why? I'm OK with palm stones, but 2 x 5 or 1.5 x 6 is as small as I go. No paste necessary after the Hard Arkie (if you've got it burnished and done your part properly during the honing process). Unless you like a pasted edge, then by all means go for it.

I might also suggest CBN spray from Chef Knives To Go as opposed to the red/white paste. The CBN is incredibly comfortable even on my sensitive skin, and probably the only paste I've enjoyed using even though at .25 Microns it's incredibly fine/keen.

Originally Posted by gcbryan

All of my hones except for my King 1K are smaller, handheld hones. I have no problem with them and they are easier to store.

I have the quarter Chinese hone as well as a small Tsushima Ocean Blue ($35). That and a cheap pasted paddle strop is all you should need. You don't even need both but it's good to have alternatives.

The quarter Chinese hone has 50% of the surface area of the full sized hone. The thickest is just less (who cares?).

I use a cheap $10 Ebay paddle strop for pastes. The Tsushima Ocean Blue is my favorite currently but the cut down Chinese hone works well too.

I am not trying to start an argument but how can a 1/4 hone have 50% of the surface area of a full sized one? You can't argue that you have the reverse side as a full size one has a back too, well unless yours floats between dimensions or something 😅.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

I am not trying to start an argument but how can a 1/4 hone have 50% of the surface area of a full sized one? You can't argue that you have the reverse side as a full size one has a back too, well unless yours floats between dimensions or something ��.

Actually his quartered CNAT is %50 of the honing surface area. He cut a 2" x 8" x 1" hone so that it's 2" x 4" x 1/2"

So the quartered Cnat actually isn't too bad. Still a tiny bit short, but perhaps workable. Call me crazy, but if he were buying single grit Norton stones and cutting them like that (3"x4"x1/2") he'd be onto something. Better still if they were 1.5" x 8" x 1/2"

Originally Posted by Marshal

Actually his quartered CNAT is %50 of the honing surface area. He cut a 2" x 8" x 1" hone so that it's 2" x 4" x 1/2"

So the quartered Cnat actually isn't too bad. Still a tiny bit short, but perhaps workable. Call me crazy, but if he were buying single grit Norton stones and cutting them like that (3"x4"x1/2") he'd be onto something. Better still if they were 1.5" x 8" x 1/2"

Oh, in that case i appologise, this makes sense.

I love this forum and spend way too much time reading it (ask my wife ). Although I've wet shaved for quite a while I'm new to SR and often feel like I'm five years old trying to hang out with my high school brothers, especially with the honing topic. Like a lot of people I'm on limited budget. I'm especially confused about the barber hones. In some discussions it comes up that their grit equivalent is actually fairly low-mod range and there are lots of inconsistencies between stones which makes me think I would be better off to try and get just a 10 or 12 thousand grit finisher, but other times the barber hone seems like it would be the perfect Stone for me to get started with just to maintain my own razors, as long as I have them well honed to begin with by somebody who knows what they're doing . The bottom line: if I already have 1 or 2 straight razors that come to me truly shave ready, am I better off getting a swaty two or three line or getting an off-brand finisher like a Chinese 12K, or something else? Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by JayR

I love this forum and spend way too much time reading it (ask my wife ). Although I've wet shaved for quite a while I'm new to SR and often feel like I'm five years old trying to hang out with my high school brothers, especially with the honing topic. Like a lot of people I'm on limited budget. I'm especially confused about the barber hones. In some discussions it comes up that their grit equivalent is actually fairly low-mod range and there are lots of inconsistencies between stones which makes me think I would be better off to try and get just a 10 or 12 thousand grit finisher, but other times the barber hone seems like it would be the perfect Stone for me to get started with just to maintain my own razors, as long as I have them well honed to begin with by somebody who knows what they're doing . The bottom line: if I already have 1 or 2 straight razors that come to me truly shave ready, am I better off getting a swaty two or three line or getting an off-brand finisher like a Chinese 12K, or something else? Thanks in advance.

I'd say save the money and get the synthetic 12k either naniwa or kuromaku by shapton. You will have repeatable and reliable results. I cannot say anything good or bad about a barber hone as I have not used one.
I have a naniwa 12k and the rest of my hones are kuromaku and I really like both brands. Kuromaku you can find on Amazon I believe the 12k I looked up the other day was $63 dollars. The naniwa is a bit more.
Another route is getting a note on 4/8k which is a great hone and you can shave comfortably off 8k. There are a lot of options finding your price point and what you want is all it comes down to.