Honing Equipment

Hello,

I purchased Lynn's DVD, studied the honing section a few times and am ready to purchase some stones and a strop. I've got a razor I dont mind banging up through the learning curve. I want to keep it as simple as possible and dont want to spend several hundred dollars right now. Obviously a strop is required and a Norton 4000/8000 wet stone. Now, is it necessary to pick up a finer grit finishing stone, like the Kitayama or are the pastes preferred? Are the flat strops or hanging strops better suited for a newb? I guess, with all the different products available, I'm a little lost on what a good, cost effective, beginner package might be thats easy to learn.

Most guys prefer a hanging strop for normal use. Paddle strops or flatbed hones are required for pastes. I've been using pastes to maintain my Lynn sharpened edges for almost two years now.

My advice would be to pick up a razor from a member here, so you have a good idea as to what sharp really is. This gives you a good reference for your honing skills. If you maintain with pastes, you'll have an idea what you can and cannot accomplish with them.

Many guys like the Amplex diamond pastes. Some of us use Boron Carbide & Chromium Oxide from Keith at HandAmerican.com. Lots of choices. Just remember, there's more than one right answer.

Everybody's got their preferences. The Norton 4k/8k and a pasted paddle is a pretty cost-effective combination. The paddles are nice because there's some very fine grit abrasives out there, and also because it's easy to experiment with different abrasives - just clean off the old abrasive and smear on the new stuff. But I've got both paddles and barber hones and fine-grit hones and use them all.

Thanks for the replys. I purchased one of the Filarmonica 7/8 Doble Temple razors from classicshaving along with a sharpening service from Lynn for a shaving razor to learn with. As far as my shaving razor goes, it sounds like a paddle strop w/paste is all I'll need to keep that sharp for a good amount of time? Maybe one of the 4 sided paddles would work so I'll have a non pasted side for a final stropping.

I'd like to learn how to sharpen myself too (ebay razors, etc) and it appears I'll need a rougher stone like to Norton 4/8. Is the Norton 4/8 and a paddle strop for fine finishing good enough to get an old razor (not restoring, just sharpening) up and running or do most guys go ahead and get the finer stones like the Kitayami?

If I were you I'd get the following items in addition (under $10 combined) a flat marble or granite 12x12"/30x30cm tile and a pack of 1000 grit wet-dry sandpaper. This will serve 2 purposes:
1) To lap (flatten) your Norton before first use and occasionally as you wear it down with honing.
2) To establish initial bevels on the razors before you take them to the Norton (that saves you a good amount of honing time)
If you get a pasted paddle strop, you won't really need barber hones or any other fine finishers even though they would be nice for experimenting.

Firestart - thanks, thats what I was looking for. The tile/sandpaper combo is cheaper than an an actual lapping stone. Now, when you talk about starting initial bevels on ebay razors and such, do you actually run the razor over the sandpaper (on top of the tile) like your honing on a stone or are you using a stropping motion? I just need some clarification on this as it sounds quite "rough".

I do a bunch of circular strokes over wet sandpaper (10 per side) until I feel it getting sharp and then I do 20 honing motion strokes (approx). Don't forget to tape the spine when you do that. That's when I go to the hone and do gentle pyramids and get the blade up to snuff very quickly.