Advice regarding a beginners hone

I have been looking at hone reviews here, on Amazon, and other places and am totally confused. I see some hones that lubricate with oil, some with water (wetstones, slurry), some that need shaping, 250 grit, and I believe 4000 grit. My head is spinning :)

What would you guys recommend for a beginner's first hone? I have a few antique store razors that I am playing with and I have one that my barber put into shape for me and I need to keep it that way.

I actually bought an antique hone at a dealer, it's about 2" wide and about 5 - 6" long. It 'seems' smooth with no irregularities (at least to the untrained novice). Would something like this be sufficient? I have no clue what grit it is. Would I use oil on it, and if so, what kind?

I'm on a bit of a budget (like everyone) and really have no idea what I should expect price wise. I've seen some hones at over $100 and some as low as $20. Is there really a decent $20 hone out there?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

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Originally Posted by spinsheet

I have been looking at hone reviews here, on Amazon, and other places and am totally confused. I see some hones that lubricate with oil, some with water (wetstones, slurry), some that need shaping, 250 grit, and I believe 4000 grit. My head is spinning :)

What would you guys recommend for a beginner's first hone? I have a few antique store razors that I am playing with and I have one that my barber put into shape for me and I need to keep it that way.

I actually bought an antique hone at a dealer, it's about 2" wide and about 5 - 6" long. It 'seems' smooth with no irregularities (at least to the untrained novice). Would something like this be sufficient? I have no clue what grit it is. Would I use oil on it, and if so, what kind?

I'm on a bit of a budget (like everyone) and really have no idea what I should expect price wise. I've seen some hones at over $100 and some as low as $20. Is there really a decent $20 hone out there?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

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Read the wiki extensively. Here are two articles to read in particular:
Beginner's Guide to Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki
What hone(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Really it comes down to what you want to do right now. Do you have a razor that you can shave with and just want to refresh it should it start pulling? Then you can probably get away with one hone (say a barber's hone) or pasted fabric.

If you're looking to take a dull razor to shave-ready then you'll need either a set of stones, or a few very versatile natural stones.

I see that there are four grit ranges that are advised: 1k; 4k; 8k; and 10k. Is there a recommended starter set that includes those four ranges? What kind of price would I be looking to pay for those? Is the 10k a 'must have'? It seemed as if that one was optional.

I looked on Amazon and there were some starter kits (Norton) but they seemed more suited toward woodworking tools.

I also saw this, Norton 24336 Japanese-Style Combination Waterstone 4000/8000 Grit. but that only had the two grits, would that suffice for a bit?

I see that I have quite a bit of research to do here...

Thanks :)

The Norton kit with the 220/1000, 4000/8000 and flattening stone is a good buy. At one time that was the go to razor hone for newbies and honemeisters alike. Post a photo of the antique hone you have and maybe someone can tell you what it is.

I'm fairly new to the world of straight razors so I don't want to sound like I know a lot and all I can offer you is what I have learned or am in the process of learning

Ideally, the Norton kit JimmyHAD mentioned is what you need and will last you a lifetime but is pricey. Again, I'm fairly new to honing razors but have had great success with the Norton set. To answer you're question about slurry, I've bought quite a few vintage razors that were dull as all get out and I haven't used any. However, I did buy a tube of diamond paste and put it on the back side of the linen strop and it seems to have helped a lot for giving me that little extra OOMPH on the edge.

Since you are on a tight budget, there are several options I can suggest. To start with, a well honed razor that is properly maintained, should last you a good several months without honing. I honed the razor I'm using right now at least a month ago, used the diamond paste right after honing and it is still shaving perfect (I only used the diamond paste the one time). I'm still experimenting with the diamond paste but I hear you can keep and edge for a much longer time with it by stropping with it about once every month or so. It seems I've read where about every 3 months you may need to hone but I'm not sure if this is with or without using the diamond paste. I have yet to use a razor long enought to find out. When I said using the diamond paste on the back side of the linen, I think most strops you can usually take the strop apart at the top and flip over the linen. For honing just to replentish the edge, the 4/8K should work and costs somewhere around $70.00. If you should need more than that and since you said your barber did it for you, would he/she be willing to do that for you every so often if needed? When I bought my set of Norton's, I was debating weather to get just the 4/8k or the set because I didn't want to spend that much. Needless to say, I got the set and since I've been picking up other razors I have had to use the 220/1000 stone. Another option is, you can send your razor in to SRD (Lynn, the founder of SRP) and he can hone it for $20.00 whenever you need it done.

By the way, the flattening stone in the set of Norton's is used for flattening the 220/1000 or 4000/8000 stones. I'm not sure if you've ever seen it before but after you use a water stone for quite a while, it will become concave in the middle and needs to be flattened back out.

Well, now that I've written a short story..LOL!...I hope some of this helps you in whatever decisions you make. Welcome to SRP and happy shaving!

For beginner on tight budget consider two sided barber hone like Keen Kutter Kombination. They come up on ebay regularly. Usually go for $20-$35. You are getting two hones, one for sharpening and one for finishing/polishing.
If you don't mind doing a couple hundred careful laps (takes a few minutes) on the sharpening side, you can tackle most any honing job.

Please don't get me wrong, having a nice set of hones is very desirable and fine. And not at all expensive. But you can do a good job without all that if you are willing to do the work.

With hones, i believe its better to get a good hone, rather a cheap hone. The Naniwa waterstones are used by lots of people, and everyone loves them. The Shapton glass stones are also very good (harder than the Naniwa stones) and everyone loves those too, but more expensive. The norton 4k/8k is also an excellent buy!

You dont need a massive set of hones to start off with, you must first figure out what you want to do. If you are just touching up razors, a 4k and 8k are good, then you will need a finishing hone, a 12k is good. SRD (Straight Razor Designs) sells a set of Naniwa superstones, 5k, 8k and 12k for 174USD, and that will be a very good starting plane. Then down the track you might look at purchasing a japanese natural stone to finish it at a higher grit.

If you want to restore razors, you will need a 1k and maybe a 200 as well as a progression up to a finishing stone. Then as you get more experience and as you learn, you will find youll need certain grits, and you can buy them, but i wouldnt recomend getting a big set to start off with. You can always buy more, but you cant return ones you dont need.

I personally just brought myself a set of hones (they should come tomorrow or the next day), i want to restore razors and touch them up. I went for the Shapton glass stones because they are harder, so i dont have to lap them as often, as well as a certain member (a honemeister) recommended them to me and explained why. I got the 4k, 8k, 16k 3 pack of the Shapton glass stones, as well as a 1k (all from SRD). This gives me a good range, then as i get honing, ill buy more as i need them.

But whatever brand you get (Naniwa, Norton, Shapton) you wont go wrong! I would avoid ebay though, unless a honemeister specifically looked at that exact listing, and told you it was a good buy, but if it is a good buy, you can expect lots of competition for it!

This is just my two cents, im not an expert, but i was in a similar position about 10 days ago.

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 :D

After my reply to your thread last night, I decided to hit my razor on the pasted side of my strop to see how it would freshen it up and WOW!. Like I had said earlier, it's been a month or so that I've been shaving with it while only stropping (without diamond paste) and did 20 strokes on the pasted side of the strop this morning. I can't beleive what a difference it made. Where I could really tell the difference is at the back of my jaw, under my ear where my beard starts on my neck. This seems to be the most sensitive area of my face where I can really tell what's going on with the razor. Don't get me wrong, It was shaving good yesterday but this morning was way better.

At this point in my learning curve, I would strongly recomend a tube of the 6 micron diamond paste to help keep your razor maintained for a longer period of time before needing honing. I'm pretty sure the 6 micron is the one I used because it's the brownish color and you can get it from SRD and is fairly inexpensive.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

This is the newest version of the Wiki article that Commiecat was so nice to link for you I have added much more info to it I hope it helps out...

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:aargh:

Okay. I've updated the Wiki article accordingly. Because in two days's time, nobody will find this thread again. Then I've consolidated the stand-alone article on pastes into this article. Oh yeah, and I've also removed some of the 1st person narrative, corrected some failed attempts at English grammar, and tidied up duplicate pieces of information.

Here is the result: What hone(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Wiki. Personally, I find it quite useful now.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Robin
PA to Glen

My dear Robin:

Great job with the updates. Thanks.

Regards,

Obie

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!

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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!

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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

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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 :D

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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.

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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.

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

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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!

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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 :p

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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...

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+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