Thread: Best or Good stones

Originally Posted by Adventurer627

gugi at the risk of hi-jacking this thread. What natural stones do you use in your honing progression?

For setting the bevel and honing out chips I use DMT Extra Fine, then I have belgians (blues and coticules), eschers (one is thuringian w/o a label) and a nakayama. I also have a norton and few barber hones that I almost never use.

The one thing you will need is advice on honing from the guys here. If you use either a Norton 4000/8000, or a Begian blue and belgian coticule, or a set of Shapton glass hones, then you will have a bunch of guys who have experience with those hones who can help you.

Belgians, blue is about 4000 grit, yellow is 8000-10,000 grit. Can be used with a slurry, water only, lather or dry. Slow cutters. Not good for restoring a damaged edge.
Easy to keep in working shape.

Norton 4000/8000 combo hone. Inexpensive, faster cutting than the Belgians. Has been used by many people on this forum.Lots of help available. Requires a lot more upkeep (soaking, cleaning, flattening) than the Belgians or Shapton glass hones.

Shapton glass hones. New kid on the block but getting some rave reviews. Easy to use like the Belgians ( no soaking required) but still require cleaning ( like the Nortons) and flattening. All hones require flattening from time to time but the Shapton needs a more expensive hone for flattening.
The durability of the hones has yet to be determined.

The basic hones are a 4000 grit and a 8000 grit.
A 1000 grit is necessary to remove visible nicks and old oxidised edges. Many of us use 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper for this.
A 10,000 grit and finer is a luxury, not a necessity.
Get the basics first.

Just my $.02,

You will need a progression of hones depending on what you want to do. Only you can decide whether you want diamond coated plates like the DMT series, manufactured hones like the Shapton hones or natural stones like the yellow coticules, Eschers, and Japanese hones. ...or some combination of the above. Everyone has their preferences. If you just need to maintain your razors you could get by with a yellow coticule and a Nakayama Japanese hone and the Nakayama is really optional.