Thread: Waterstones

Hello all,
Finished my first full face WTG shave this morning. No cuts The second shave was with my Gillette fatboy that I've used for years. My face did feel 'alive' as someone put it. My grandfather was a barber in Caribou, Maine in the early 1900's. I think he was watching.
My question is which waterstones should I purchase first. I thought maybe the 12,000 grit stone. Do I need to also purchase that small stone used to make a slurey on the 12,000 grit stone?
Should I purchase the Norton 4000/8000 as my first stone? And what about the dressing stone?
At some point I'll probably have them all but I need help setting priorities.
Thanks,
Karl

tough choices. What do you want to do? I would love to be able to convince people to stick with shave ready razors and only learn to touch them up on high grit hones, such as a 10-12 k stone. learn how to make the right strokes etc. Learn how to shave and strop first. Then learn how to tear a bevel to sh&t with a 4k and learn how to bring it back to shaving sharpness.

So often it's like "I want to learn to fly, so what do I need, a Cessna, a Beachcraft, a 757? No, how about we just start with a Cessna? Most guys end up with a boat load of hones, I'm not really sure why.

The Norton combo, 4-8 is enough hone to keep you in trouble for several months.

If you want to get into restoration honing I suggest a 220, 1k, 4k, 8k, 12k, a second job, and 12 more hours in the day.

Brutally honest, but effective. Thanks AFDavis11.

In addition to what was said above, I would have a look at this article
gssixgun wrote it for this months edition of the beginners tips
It also contains links to various parts of the wiki articles about honing.
A very good read.

+1 on Glen's article. It's full of good info. A 12k stone is a good finisher, as you'll read in the article, what do you plan to do?. The Norton 4/8k is a good choice, and so is Naniwa 5 or 3k, and 8 or 10k.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Most guys end up with a boat load of hones, I'm not really sure why.

For the same reasons why we end up with so many razors...

gssixgun's article was a good read. Thanks. At this point I guess I'm what he refered to as an end user. Just looking to touch up the blade when the shave starts to degrade. Since I'm just starting I'm hoping that is a couple of months off. No problems with the strop. Seems to be working just fine.

If its just touching up; pasted strop with crox/thiers issard paste (only two I've used and give nice sharp edges, relies on good stropping technique), 12k naniwa (give really comfortable edges but expensive), chinese 12k (cheap decent finisher).

And I would always recommend having at least two razors, there's nothing worse than having a hairy face and nothing to shave it with


regards Alex

Karl, Karl, Karl,
At this stage of your straight razor journey I would suggest that you do not need any hones at all.
I have a shave ready razor that I purchased from the classifieds here well over six months ago and I have yet to feel the need to touch it up on anything other than my strop.
Granted I have restored a few since then and used them all, however, I have kept the shave ready razor as a point of comparison, so to speak, so I know how an edge should feel.
If I were you I would get used to shaving WTG, XTG and ATG and getting good results for at least a dozen shaves before thinking about honing your razor.
I would also suggest that you get a shave ready razor to use as a baseline to know whether or not you are getting a good edge once you do start honing.
Maybe in the first instance you may only need a PHIG to touch up your razors. (Glen has posted a great video on this subject on You Tube)
The choice, of course, is yours alone and this is only my $0.02.
Whichever way you choose to go, hang on and enjoy the ride.