Thread: Honing Question.

I'm looking to purchase a hone, and am wondering what hones would I need for my razor.

I got a DOVA straight razor on the way. The blade is made of high carbon steel, made by hand to a 5/8 full hollow ground. Looks like this:



What type of hones would be recommended to keep it sharp?

That's a great looking first razor!
It may be worth learing to hone on an old dog to protect that one!
There are many options & it's down to personal choice really. Most will probably recommend a 4k/8k Norton combi.
I'd recommend a natural BBW/Yellow coticule combi that's already lapped, as you'll want one eventually anyway!
A chinese 12k is a fantastic finisher. It's amazing value & does a fantastic job. It can be a bit slow, but using slurry for the initial work speeds it up tremendously.

To be honest? If you are new to straight razors I highly recommend sending your razor out to one of the honemeisters to have it done right. You will get a razor that is truly ready to shave. I have been using straights since August and just purchased my first hone. If you are dead set on getting a hone right now buy a Norton 4000/8000, then buy an inexpensive razor on ebay (not a Zeepk) or from an antique shop/fair to develop you honing skills. Your professionally honed Dovo will be the bendhmark to compare your edge to.

+1!!!! Send it out to get honed and to use, that razor is far too nice to experiment with! Buy a double arrow on ebay and learn with it. Once this is pro-honed all youll ever need is a strop and a good barbers hone to keep it in shape indefinately.
PM Sent.

I’m still sold on a Norton 4000/8000 waterstone and a paddle strop pasted with .5 micron Chromium Oxide powder. Starting with a truly shave ready blade, you could even forget about the Norton stone for quite some time. The more I read, it seems the pasted paddle strop may be a crutch towards getting an absolutely correctly stone honed shave perfect edge. However it is a very nice serviceable crutch that will keep you in perfect shaving edges and will not break the bank in the process. It is still good advice to send the Dovo out for professional honing and get a/some vintage cheapies to learn on.