Thread: Growing with the hobby.

Oh boy... I am a little biased here, but I think hones would be your best long term bet.

Even with the full gamut of strop pastes, your razors will need to hit the hones eventually. But I think hones are cool so...

I think that one appropriate finishing stone should be enough, unless at some point you want to rework the bevel or have to hone out damage to the blade

Which finishing stone would you recomend? And as far as the term "refreshing" the blade goes, will any of the 12k grit stones work just fine or are some more preferred than others?

You'll have a dozen different options at least for a finishing hone. I have recently been using a yellow Belgian coticule and it seems to work great for me now. I wasn't ever able to get a good shave off of a Norton 8k, but others really enjoy it. There are the 8k or 16k Shapton ceramic on glass, some prefer a Thuringian natural hone, or a Japanese natural. For all the variables, I feel like you would have to just try one and see if you like it. In your location though that might not be as easily done as here in the States it would be

The best bang for your buck might be the Chinese 12k although I have found it to be a slow cutter

hopefully someone else can give you some better guidance than I can

good luck!