Thread: sharpening for a newbie

Hi there

just started this whole straight razor thing, and I'm looking at getting some stones. I'm a knife knut to start with, so I have a 1200 ceramic stone to start with, with a 5k stone coming this week.

can I shave off the 5k, or should I invest in a 12k?

I have some severely limited funds, and have run out of stuff to sell.

thanks

From my experience, shaving off the 5k is going to be ruff! The progression I use personally is the 4k/8k Norton and then the Chinese 12k, which is fairly cheap at $34 USD. I've read in the wiki and on other threads that you can shave off the 8k Norton but I've gotten better results with adding a 12k in the mix.

With funds being limited, you may look into a BBW/Coticule combo, from what I understand, these stones are very versitile when used with a slurry stone and will give you several options.

Good Luck.

Joe

Yeah, you need something more than the 5k, and a jump to 12k is probably too far. That is especially true if the 12k you are thinking of is the Chinese hone, which as a natural should not be called 12k anyway.

The most common recommendation on this forum is the Norton 4k and 8k. They work. They're fairly economical. Finally, because they are commonly used in this forum there is lots of experienced advice available for how to use them.

Another option would be to use just a barber's hone. This will work if you if you are starting out with a shave ready razor. It can also be used as an economical finishing/polishing hone.

As already pointed out in the Basic Honing forum, the lower grit stones do the actual sharpening, and the higher grits polish the edge.

May I ask if you have already started to shave with your razor? If not I highly recommend sending your razor off to one of our honemeisters to put the proper edge on it. Honing your razor is just not the same as sharpening your knives. If you don't get it done by a honemiester you will always be trying to figure if your bad shave was due to bad technique or an improper edge. Get another razor to practice your honing skills and compare your edge to the one done by the honemeister.

Once you have your good edge you will only have to refresh it from time to time (with polishing stones or barbers hones). You will not need to set a new bevel unless you've damaged the edge.

with the right hones and skills it's possible to jump from 5k to 12k, but i don't think that's appropriate option for you.

your next stone should be on the 8k level, not 12k and certainly not the chinese hone which is slow so according to people using it often it takes 50-150 laps after 8k.

Your best option would be this....

PM to Jimbo with one word in huge bold letters...

HELP !!!!!

He is down under also.... and knows his stones very well, and can probably point you to the most economical path for you....