I Wish I'd Done This First

To "touch up" my razors I've fooled around with barber hones of all kinds--and I love 'em all--but was continually dissatisfied with the results. Then as I tried to hone a few pretty nice razors gotten on eBay--a Wosty, a Dubl-Duck, etc. in good shape--I was okay through the 8K hone and then somehow…never got there. Sharp, but not really fun to shave with!

Recently I picked up the Naniwa Superstone 12K.

All I can say is WOW. This hone does not live in my shop. It lives in the bathroom where I shave. It is perfect for touching up a tired razor. And obviously, not news to anyone who hones, it's a killer finishing stone.

That, combined with stropping as lightly as I can, is bringing the sparkle back to my razors, and putting the slickness on the ones I've honed from eBay dull to chopping hairs.

I would recommend a beginner who wants a hone to keep professionally honed razors keen skip the cheapo stuff and go straight for the Naniwa. Then as you need to hone more, pick up an 8K stone. For many of us, that's all we will ever need!

+1 on that 12k Naniwa. I reckon its one of if not the best synthetic finisher out there.

Although the 8K does a nice job, to put the final finish I use my pasted strop. In the future I'll by a 12K or 16K stone for my finisher.. :beer1:

The 12k is one of the first stones I bought. Money well spent. It is an invaluable part of my progression.
My only problem with it is that it feels so darn cheap. And that plastic base is so tacky.

One of the honing mentors on this board has said it, and I now see how wise he was--we should start learning to hone by first learning to strop and maintain a professionally honed razor. When the strop doesn't do the job, we should acquire a nice high-grit hone to touch up the edge (e.g. the Naniwa 12K). At some point, that won't be enough, and so picking up an 8K stone is the thing to do. For most of us, that's as far as we'll ever need to go. If we get into yard sale razors, antiques, eBay purchases, etc, well, then we need to get the 4K and 1K stones.

The nice thing about this sequence is that it fits our experience, and it starts with the easiest tasks. It's a lot easier to give a razor 5-7 strokes on a Naniwa 12K or a good barber hone than to set a bevel!

Thanks for the clue!

To paraphrase Star Wars:

"Many skin-cells (Bothans) died to bring you this information."

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Originally Posted by jplamarre

Thanks for the clue!

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Personally, I have found the 8K Norton to be all I need for maintenance honing. I usually go straight from there to my regular strop. I do have finer stones and a pasted bench strop, but I hardly ever use them anymore. In my opinion, the 8K will get the blade sharp and a proper stropping on cloth and leather will polish it.

Naturally I won't question your experience. Everyone agrees you ought to be able to shave off the 8K before moving to finish hones. But I was not talking about going from bevel-setting upwards, but rather from shave ready to "tired" etc.

Also, maybe you're missing something. I know of no professional honemeisters who stop with the 8K. Nearly all have one or more hones, films, or pastes up in the 10-12K range, many go farther.

8K makes the razor sharp, but most don't find it smooth. Also, if a razor has been finished on 12K or more (most hand-honed razors have) then dropping to the 8K potentially alters the razor more than you want just for a touch-up.

But then I'm still learning. I have tried for weeks to get the 8K + stropping both sharp and smooth. I got sharp, I couldn't get smooth. The 12K knocked it out of the park for me.

Mileage varies, of course!

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Originally Posted by MasterRolf

Personally, I have found the 8K Norton to be all I need for maintenance honing. I usually go straight from there to my regular strop. I do have finer stones and a pasted bench strop, but I hardly ever use them anymore. In my opinion, the 8K will get the blade sharp and a proper stropping on cloth and leather will polish it.

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Originally Posted by LawsonStone

To paraphrase Star Wars:

"Many skin-cells (Bothans) died to bring you this information."

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Haha, I wonder if my girlfriend will be sensible to this argument.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LawsonStone

Naturally I won't question your experience. Everyone agrees you ought to be able to shave off the 8K before moving to finish hones. But I was not talking about going from bevel-setting upwards, but rather from shave ready to "tired" etc.

Also, maybe you're missing something. I know of no professional honemeisters who stop with the 8K. Nearly all have one or more hones, films, or pastes up in the 10-12K range, many go farther.

8K makes the razor sharp, but most don't find it smooth. Also, if a razor has been finished on 12K or more (most hand-honed razors have) then dropping to the 8K potentially alters the razor more than you want just for a touch-up.

But then I'm still learning. I have tried for weeks to get the 8K + stropping both sharp and smooth. I got sharp, I couldn't get smooth. The 12K knocked it out of the park for me.

Mileage varies, of course!

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I wouldn't like to give advice in this area because I only have a couple of hones, and because I'm not a professional - I only hone my own razors. However, I do get a nice edge off my coticule. It's not as smooth as a 12/30k but lately I prefer it more. For me, the way is with soap. I really load the coti up with it. Simple hand soap. Start with your shave ready razor, use a little weight and after about 35 - 50 strokes the lather starts pulling the blade into the stone so you don't need any pressure. I do another 35 - 50 like this and then start adding a few drops of water. I do another 35 - 50 like this and then maybe use a pasted strop. Give it a try - you'll find the soap helps the razor glide over the surface so it leaves a smoother finish than just water. (I might be wrong there as I don't have a microscope to check the edge).

Cheers,