Blade Maintenance

NOTE: As a newbie i thought this would be best in this section but if anyone (with the power) feels that this should be in the hones section please feel free to move it :)


For someone who has sharp razors that they have been happily using and stropping on a day to day basis and the possibility of new and new and sharp blades in the future what kind of hone would you suggest? A coticule? A Belgian Blue? A vintage whetting stone or something else entirely? I’m talking about a regular maintenance stone as opposed to restoration hones.

First choice, if I were you, would be a Yellow Coticule, a very, versatile stone....

Second choice, would be a small Barbers Hone a very, inexpensive stone...

I concur.

<filler>

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

First choice, if I were you, would be a Yellow Coticule, a very, versatile stone....

Second choice, would be a small Barbers Hone a very, inexpensive stone...

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I too am new, but i use a barber's hone and it does well for me. Small and managable, and though mine was passed down to me they are relatively cheap.

A coticule would be a excellent first stone.

I have a yellow Belgian, and an Escher. The Escher performs exceedingly well. But then again, I have only honed 10 razors, so my experience is extremely limited.

The following section in the Wiki might be of help. Unfortunately, the Belgian stones are not described, yet. Someone should fill in the required information.

Progressive Honing Guide - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Coticule or some other polishing stone for sure but a pasted paddle would be handy too.
I like CrO followed by jeweller's rouge. Some ppl use diamond sprays, cigar ash etc etc...

All above replies are good suggestions. We would be better able to answer you question if you noted your budget for a hone. A barber's hone is acceptable w/ low cost. Many people use them. If you've got the money to spend the corticle or escher are execellent choices.

Coticule is fine for polishing and in many instances maintenance. So are barber hones, chromium oxide and .5 diamond media. If you are going to be honing new aquisitions in the future, I woule recommend either a Norton 4K/8K or the Shapton Glass Stones.

Good Luck,

Lynn

coticule and cro-ox.

I would concur with the use of the yellow coticule. It is one of my favorite finishing stones.

How rough/smooth are barbers hones generally?
How useful will one be for me towards restoring/resharpening blades.

Do I need to lap a babers hone? Or at least once when first get it?


I got one with a vintage blade off ebay, and havn't tried it or done anything yet as want all the right info first.

I've collected a few blades and want to make them all shave ready and work towards restoring them, and some of them eventually working towards selling locally, as there isn't any one in canberra that does honing or sells blades, so I thought why not make it me?

I'd also like to have a few more usable ones for myself in general. I have 2 good ones from here that I use and have as a benchmark.

Jase

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jtank13

How rough/smooth are barbers hones generally?
How useful will one be for me towards restoring/resharpening blades.

Do I need to lap a babers hone? Or at least once when first get it?


I got one with a vintage blade off ebay, and havn't tried it or done anything yet as want all the right info first.

I've collected a few blades and want to make them all shave ready and work towards restoring them, and some of them eventually working towards selling locally, as there isn't any one in canberra that does honing or sells blades, so I thought why not make it me?

I'd also like to have a few more usable ones for myself in general. I have 2 good ones from here that I use and have as a benchmark.

Jase

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This is a totally different question than what the OP had....
Once you said the word "restore" you changed the parameters drastically
For razor restoration you opened a very large doorway to all different razors in many different states of "dis-repair"
So a much wider set of stones is needed to do the work in any sort of timely fashion.... I did not say you could not manage to do a edge restore with just a two sided barber's hone, but myself I don't have days to get one blade to shave ready....

Basicaly you need stones from the low grit bevel cutters, to the high grit finishing stones....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

This is a totally different question than what the OP had....
Once you said the word "restore" you changed the parameters drastically
For razor restoration you opened a very large doorway to all different razors in many different states of "dis-repair"
So a much wider set of stones is needed to do the work in any sort of timely fashion.... I did not say you could not manage to do a edge restore with just a two sided barber's hone, but myself I don't have days to get one blade to shave ready....

Basicaly you need stones from the low grit bevel cutters, to the high grit finishing stones....

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Yeah that's true, all makes sense.

But what aprox grit do single sided barbers stones have?
This one is single sided and the back actually has a dip in it, possible for holding?

I guess in time I need to look for some more different grit hones, just a shame they are all so pricy, but all in good time.

thanks for that.