Thread: Introducing Myself

Hi everyone! I've been lurking around here for a while now. I'm a converted DE shaver. I have been straight shaving for the past two weeks and I am absolutely hooked! I puchased a Wostenholm 5/8 from a member of B&B forums. It came shave ready and has so far been a nice razor. I also picked up one of Tony's apprentice strops. I don't have any intention of getting into honing right away, but I am going to start acquiring the needed stones for it so I will be ready when I feel comfortable. So I figured it best to first get a finishing stone which I could possibly use for touch-ups as well.

Would this be an appropriate stone for that purpose?

Narrow cut Chinese 12,000 grit stone with slurry stone - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

Thanks in advance for the advice!

You cannot go wrong with a Chinese 12K. They work very well and are very forgiving compared to some of the more aggressive man-made stones available. Remember though, they are great at polishing a sharp blade but are quite slow if you have any steel to remove. I utilize this stone as well as a swaty barbers hone exclusively for final polishing and maintenance of my blades.

Many guys speak favourably about that stone. I don't think you would be disappointed.

X

I've never tried this stone, and really don't have a desire to, but it's a well liked one.
Personally I like the 1.5" wide hones, although the narrow hones are probably trickier on newbies.
The best way to get into honing is the approach you're considering - start with touching up razors first, it's much much easier.

Wostenholms are nice, aren't they

I have a lot of hones, wide and narrow. There are times when the narrow can work better. If you know what you are doing you can do equally well with a wide hone but sometimes a narrow hone is just easier. When you are first learning to hone, the biggest challenge is developing the muscle memory to consistently and constantly keep the blade level, except when you are deliberately using a rolling motion. Now, keeping the blade flat is more difficult on a narrow hone but it can be done. Also you can effectively make the honing surface by honing with the blade at a 45 degree angle with the heel leading.

Ok, so I babbled on about that because my first thought about your question was to address the issue of the narrowness of the hone. There is more to it than that.

If you go to the review section, you can read up on the Chinese 12K. Basically you will find that the hone provides an excellent and economical honing surface. Chris' cutting of that stone provides the following advantages.
1. You get a slurry stone. The use of a slurry expands the usability of the hone by speeding its cutting action. I suspect that is will allow it to be more usable for touch-ups. Also, if I recall correctly, I believe one of Howard Schechter's objections to the hone was that the surface tended to clog and in his opinion often needed to be refreshed. Having a slurry stone accomplishes this.
2. You get a hone that comes both pre-lapped and its edges beveled. With the 12K, this is not insignificant as this is not an easy hone to lap.
3. Since this hone is one quarter of the original hone, it is less than one quarter of the weight of the original hone. The thing is a brick! Chris' hone is much lighter, allowing you to easily hold it in your hand while you hone. In my opinion, it is easier and more comfortable to hone while holding the hone in your hand rather than leaving it on a table.
4. As described above, the hone is narrower. You might or might not consider that to be an advantage.

I already had a 12K. I bought one of Chris' cut hones that you are now considering. I have used it and I highly recommend it. I believe that these cut hones will catch on and become extremely popular as more people try them. I would suggest that you buy one quickly before you lose your chance!

Well said, Utopian!

Thanks all for the information. I will definitely be purchasing one of these very soon.

As a follow up, what would be an appropriate next hone? I was thinking maybe a Norton 4/8k. Whatever is next I will need to save a few coins before the wifey will allow me to spend more on saving gear. It is amazing how addicting his stuff becomes.

If you dig through the forum, particularly the honing sections, you will find lots of discussions about hones. What you choose sort of depends on what you intend to do. If you're just going to buy a few razors for your personal use, you don't really need anything more. If you want to be able to take an old razor that needs a new bevel, you will need a Norton 4K or some other hone that is at least as coarse as that. The Norton 4/8K is fine and relatively reasonably priced, and that in conjunction with the Chinese 12K could be all you need. Alternatively, you could get by with a couple of barber hones. They have the advantage of being cheaper but they tend toward the 8-12K range. Coarser barber hones are more rare but they certainly do exist even on ebay. Coticules, yellow and blue, are a great option for virtually everything but bevel setting.

That's a little bit of options, but seriously, just dig through the honing forum and you will have a lot of informative reading to help you decide what you want.