Thread: Advice regarding a beginners hone

Building on this query, and understanding the generally dim view of hones offered on e-bay, I'd appreciate it if someone could explain in greater depth what it is that's wrong with the e-bay hones.

I've seen a listing from a seller in Poland (open_razor) who offers a three-piece set of 5K, 8K and 12K stones for water-based honing. I'm assuming all three are of Chinese manufacture, although only the 12K is explicitly ID'd as being Chinese.

Does this set fall under the general rubric of "very few bargains on e-bay and if they really are, the honemeisters are all over them?"

Within my query lies my purpose: I've gotten a few "vintage" blades needing anything from a full bevel-reset/restore to a nice tidying-up, and would like to try my hand at learning the hone process (as well as sharing same w/ my son-in-law, who loves such things), but don't want to break my bank.

Does anyone have any experience with the hones I described, and if so, was the experience positive or negative?

Many thanks!

There is a lot of good advice above from those I have time to read. I should caution you that learning to hone a razor and learning to shave with it at the same time is a steep learning curve. My best advise is to get a few of your razors honed up to shave ready by a honemister or your local barber and pick up a Barber's hone (like a Swaty) or pasted strop. Learn to shave with one razor until it starts to tug. Switch to the next shave ready razor you have and try to refresh the edge on the razor that started tugging trying to match the shave quality of the razor being used to shave with at this time. If you are really interested in restoring the edge to antique shop or eBay razors you will be well advised to start with the Norton set JimmyHad directed you to. While you are learning to shave and use your Barber's hone you can be saving up for the Norton set.

I started straight shaving and honing at the same time and it was a real challenge w/ lots of cuts and questions that reading alone could not answer.

Good luck!

Hi all

I am also interested in hones for beginners.
I am not into restauration.. I will receive sortly a shave ready razor and will like to maintain it by myself. The stone that I need is for touch ups and edge refreshing only. Just for the razor I bought. I will not hone for the moment until I have a proper stropping and shaving technique.

The solutions that I like most are the following

1.- barber hones, For what I read, It seems that it is exaclty what I am looking for. I will like to know where to buy them, preferible in Europe or ebay with confidence. If not, rest of the world is ok.

2.- Belgium hones.
BBW seems to be a good natural stone, very slow, it is difficult to over hone, it may be a very good solution but I do not know if it will be enough.

3.- Belgium cuticule
Should be enough.

My question is, Where to go?

Suggestions, as always are very very wellcome.

Thanks Folks!

Originally Posted by motero57

Hi all

I am also interested in hones for beginners.
I am not into restauration.. I will receive sortly a shave ready razor and will like to maintain it by myself. The stone that I need is for touch ups and edge refreshing only. Just for the razor I bought. I will not hone for the moment until I have a proper stropping and shaving technique.

The solutions that I like most are the following

1.- barber hones, For what I read, It seems that it is exaclty what I am looking for. I will like to know where to buy them, preferible in Europe or ebay with confidence. If not, rest of the world is ok.

2.- Belgium hones.
BBW seems to be a good natural stone, very slow, it is difficult to over hone, it may be a very good solution but I do not know if it will be enough.

3.- Belgium cuticule
Should be enough.

My question is, Where to go?

Suggestions, as always are very very wellcome.

Thanks Folks!

I wouldn't go for option 2 at the moment, they fit more into a honing progression. Either of the other two could do you, I use both. If you have the money then a coticule is a good bet, very versatile. As it's a natural stone, they can behave differently though. Bart's site tells you much of what you need to know and other pointers. There are other options for finishers, but as I don't have any of them, I'll leave that to others.

I dont think i have seen any experienced honer fess up to trying the taidea hones yet(open_razor) the 12k is same as the c12k so thats good but slow

can they be used? yes
are they as easy to use as other hones? not in my experience(but maybe i was lucky with my others)

in other words i wont recomend them untill they have been tested by someone that know what there doing

Originally Posted by Spartigus

I went for the Shapton glass stones because they are harder, so i dont have to lap them as often.
If anyone disagrees with me, feel free to say!!! I wont be offended, as i said im not a master or expert, and learning from others is very important, so im open to it

The other side of the coin is that softer stones can be easier for beginners to use & take far less effort to lap even if it is more frequently needed.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

The other side of the coin is that softer stones can be easier for beginners to use & take far less effort to lap even if it is more frequently needed.

Thats a good point!! I guess its personal preference then, a hard stone vs a softer stone? Hone choice really is hard!

Originally Posted by Spartigus

Thats a good point!! I guess its personal preference then, a hard stone vs a softer stone? Hone choice really is hard!

Yeah, harder than honing.

Don't see too many bad things, if any, written about Norton,Naniwa & Shapton. So really the only hard part is picking one brand of 3 known performers.
Sure, some of us use different stones Coticules Kings etc.. etc.. but if you hit a wall using one of those 3 you'll get plenty of experienced help.
I'm sure I just upset all the coticule & King users

Originally Posted by Joed

...My best advise is to get a few of your razors honed up to shave ready by a honemister or your local barber and pick up a Barber's hone (like a Swaty) or pasted strop...

+1

By the time you need to advance beyond this scenario (quite awhile) you'll have a much better idea of what you need/want/desire. No rush.

-D