Thread: Beginners Tips: July 2010

Well another month has marched by us, I am very very late with this month's tips as I was in Colorado on vacation for 2 weeks...

Here are some things that I noticed on the boards this past month:

HONES:

What hone, and in particular tons of questions about Natural stones....

Before I go any farther I highly recommend 6 months of just learning to shave, before you even think of honing.....

Here is the most often seen question about Naturals "What is the best"????

OK first, that really can't be answered, it doesn't matter what you personally think is the best hone in the world, that you might be using, unless you are selling that stone in particular, it doesn't really matter much...

So every single time we see the question 20 people all answer with different suggestions for the New guy with their own personal opinion... Leaving the poor Newbie as confused as when he started...

Natural stones vary, in fact they vary quite a bit...

Things I have learned...

Japanese Naturals have probably a hundred or more different types of stones and each of them are slightly different in use and performance..

Coticules have about a dozen different grades and only maybe 4 (some say 2)are razor finishers...

Eschers have probably at least 6 different grades..

Thuringens have about 6 also and only the best are good for razors the lower grades are for tools...

There are some Arkansas stones out there that are more then capable of being used on razors.. Good luck finding them!!!

It took me 4 different Ch12k's before I found one that really worked well on razors..

There are stones I have barely touched, let alone learned to use correctly

Water of Ayre
Charnley Forest
Dragon's Tongue
Tam o Shanter
Belgian Blue
and many more I am forgetting

All these naturals are different from each other, and even from one stone of the same type to another of the same type....
If I had used only one Chinese Stone, I would have thought they all sucked for razors, but by continuing the hunt I found one that will perform very well...

Each natural stone has to be learned and worked before you even begin to get top performance... It takes me about 100 razors to even begin to think I know how to use that one stone, not master, just use...

So when you new guys ask, just make sure you understand that the answer is very personal, and has nothing to do with the actual stone you might find and buy...

Lapping Hones:

First off, every hone needs lapping to use on razors, the only question is how often... New hones should always be at least checked, I lap every one anyway...
Barber's hones fall in the "Hmmmmm Category" they are so small that the flatness doesn't really come into play, but most are used, and glazed over, so a light lapping won't hurt...

Most Lapping plates come in the 200-400 grit range so whether you use one of those, or just Wet-r-Dry sandpaper those are the grit ranges you want to target... (Some people go much higher)


Hope some of this helps, as always please feel free to add to this with more thoughts, we all see things from a different angle and all of them help the new guys out...