Thread: Do I need a specific type of whetstone to hone my razor?

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

why not just send it to a pro and learn to shave right,,, then you,ll know Tc

There is the issue of me living in Honduras hehe. Sending it over to the USA is a real pain in the bottom :P

Originally Posted by Aerdvaark

I've got a good 1k/6k lapped King that I am willing to donate if that is an option.

That would be awesome. Maybe we can get to an agreement because I feel kinda bad taking the stone for free. I will contact you via PM so that we can discuss everything n__n

As it seems that you have played around with the edge enough to start again from scratch, I agree with gssixgun's suggestion to start out with a King 1k/6k to rewrite things. Personally, I prefer the Suehiro 1k/6k combo to the King combo, but both will get the job done. There is also the Imanishi 1k/6k combo, but I've not tried this. As you are in Honduras, you may have access to the Suehiro, which is a bit difficult to obtain here in the USA, but my sense is that any of these three will get you there at the starting out, grunt level. Beyond this, I would suggest a Solingen-made, hanging linen strop, one side pasted with the Solingen red paste tube and the other with the Solingen white tube paste. Off the 6k, ~8-10 laps on the red pasted linen will get you there at the start prior to leather, with occasional ~30 laps on the white-pasted side as needed later for touch-ups before leather, all of this being predicated on the assumption that your game has been right on the 1k/6k beforehand. Good luck.

Well, looks like the King and a little extra surprise are on their way to you, lets just hope you get them...

Thank you good sir!
Can't wait to put my hands on it. Usually items sent from the US take between 15 to 21 days so I have quite some time to watch videos
And the little extra surprise makes everything all the more exciting :metal:

Originally Posted by Marshal

IF your 12K is one of these:

Attachment 260087

That's a Guangxi/Chinese 12K stone. It usually comes with a rubbing stone made of the same material. The stone is pretty slow, very fine, and very hard, but also most of what you need. There are a few ways to go about honing with just that and maybe a handful of inexpensive rubbing stones to help polish the edge.

Edit - I see that's exactly what you've got. The route I typically use one-stone honing with this fellow is to set the bevel, your sand paper should work for that. Then I'll use a piece of coticule, doesn't have to be big, to make a slurry on top of the stone. I do a few dilutions, until I'm almost on pure water. Then I switch over to the rubbing stone that came with my Guangxi and make a medium slurry with that. I'll dilute that mix until I'm almost honing on pure water, then wash the stone and do a good number of passes on pure water.

I have a similar stone, and there's one more thing you can do with it to go from a good to a super fine edge: you can use the slurry as strop paste. It actually has improved on edges I got from SRD. This only works if you have managed to get a very decent honing done first (which is the part that I find difficult). After I used the slurry from my Chinese stone as paste the razors pop hairs in mid air like crazy.

The items finally arrived
The king stone (ready to hone!) aaaaaaaand dun dun duuuuuuuuuuun...a shave-ready razor!
I decided to take it for a test drive and shave with it.
In order to have a more accurate comparisson, I shaved half my face with my razor and the other half with the razor Peter gave me. There was a difference, oh yes! My razor shaves, but is not quite there yet compared to Peter's razor.

I will post photos as soon as I can.
Thank you Peter, your help is much appreciated!
Time to re-watch those "how to hone" videos!

That's awesome! Good luck with the new hone.

What a difference it is to have a "reference razor"
After using Peter's razor, I picked up my Invicta razor and the stone he gave to me. Did around 30 strokes on the 6K side and other 60 on the 12K, X strokes on the pad strop and what a difference! The razor shaves, and it's quite good at it! My guess is that the bevel and the edge could have been taken to this state even using the 12K stone but I would have probably need a lot more strokes than 60.

I am used to my Merkur HD and Derby blades, they provide the smoothest shave for me... until Peter's razor arrived. Now I have 3 shaving tools that perform awesomely. My only regret is not having a beard that grows fast enough to shave it daily haha.
I will now have a proper rotation with 2 SR and 1 DE

Thank you Peter!
Photos coming soon!

Photos!