Thread: What kind of hone?

I wanted to get some advice from you guys on what hone to purchase.

I have been shaving with a Boker for several months now. It's getting painful to shave with, so I need it honed. I want to try my hand at it, as I plan on honing eventually so I might as well start now.

First off, what grit should I go with?

I see that there are many 4K/8K combos. I don't know if this is right for me or not. I am not going to be restoring any beat up blades or reseting bevels or anything like that, I am just looking for a good quality stone to keep my blade as sharp as reasonably possible. If a 10K or 12K stone will get my razor sharper, but I will have to do more work (more laps) to get it there, I'd rather have a single stone of higher grit than a 4/8 that won't get quite as sharp.

I enjoy straight shaving, but I am not a collector. I have one razor, one brush, one strop. I am hoping to find one hone that will work for me to upkeep my one blade.

Thanks for your input.

I know the Norton 4k/8k is popular, and some people shave right off the 8k.

I purchased a naniwa 12k for my first hone, and while it takes awhile to refresh the edge, it does a nice job. If I had to do it again, I would have gotten the Norton 4k/8k. I think You can also get some barber hones from gemstar (gssixgun here on the forums), whipped dog, or the classifieds.

Don't forget you will need to lap the hone flat as well. Even if you buy one already lapped, you will have to get a lap soon enough to refresh the surface.

Thanks for the reply mark.

Did you find it very difficult to learn to hone?

If the blade has a good edge already I would get a good slow coticle. They produce a very nice edge and can take the place of several synthetic stones if you need to remove a minor flaw from the edge.

If you are only getting one stone, you have several options. I would recommend either a two sided barbers hone or a coticule because they are both very versatile and capable of maintaining your razor very effectively.

A norton 4k/8k is another very good option, but I'd wager that you'd want to get some pastes to help you with that edge. It is more than capable of delivering great edges, but it's not as easy to get on this stone as it is on the barbers hone.

I personally prefer the coticule but it's for various reasons, and they are mostly personal preference.

Also, just so you know, any high grit hone (synthetic or natural) will be just fine assuming you learn how to use it...

Good luck with your decision.

not sure if this helps you being over in the US, but I bought a 5000 and 12000 chinese waterstones from this Polish store on ebay:-

eBay.ie Shop: Search results for brzytwa.

Though the chinese 12k is inexpensive it would take forever to touch up a razor with it imo.

now you tell me Hoping to test this out in a few days when it arrives....dont mind it taking a good few laps, but I think it should be decent at bringing back an already good edge?

Originally Posted by life2short1971

Though the chinese 12k is inexpensive it would take forever to touch up a razor with it imo.

It should be fine as long as all you're doing is touching up an edge. You can use the slurry stone to increase the cutting power as well if you want to.

It should freshen an already good edge. i would use it at the first signs of degradation if it was my only hone.