Thread: Advice on buying stones - NZ

It removes metal faster than a non-aggressive hone. You can have 2 hones of the same grit, that have a different ability to remove metal.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I went to a second hand shop today and bought a oldish/dirty stone in the hope I can clean it and it perhaps do the job.

I will post a few. If someone can help me with what grit both sides could be and also how to clean it? Im guessing it's a oil stone

Doesn't look too bad for $8. You will want to lap it smooth, and chamfer the edges, getting those chips out. Cant really tell about the grit from pics, or even touching, but if I were to hazard a guess I would say 1000 and 4000. Perhaps someone else has a similar stone and can comment more about that.
To lap you you use either a lapping stone, a DMT, or wet sandpaper on a flat surface. (not just probably flat or pretty flat, but really flat, like a piece of marble (sold in food stores as a cheese and pastry board). For example:
Marble Cheese and Pastry Board | eBay
Having never lapped one myself with SP I am unsure what grit you would use, but I am thinking a low grit in wet/dry with water as the liquid.

Hey munster welcome to the forum.That stone looks like a carborundum oil stone. Quite common here, and more for tools, and if it is like the one I have, about 400 grit on the rough, and 800 grit on the smooth. Impossible to tell from photo. What I did was picked up a shave ready razor from the classifieds here, only took a couple of weeks to arrive, and that gave me a good idea what that really meant. For now, l would concentrate on stropping and learning to shave. With a strop, you can maintain your razor for a long time.

Originally Posted by Grazor

Hey munster welcome to the forum.That stone looks like a carborundum oil stone. Quite common here, and more for tools, and if it is like the one I have, about 400 grit on the rough, and 800 grit on the smooth. Impossible to tell from photo. What I did was picked up a shave ready razor from the classifieds here, only took a couple of weeks to arrive, and that gave me a good idea what that really meant. For now, l would concentrate on stropping and learning to shave. With a strop, you can maintain your razor for a long time.

I'd agree that's not a stone for maintaining a razor but may be useful down the line for some repairs or edge restoration

Originally Posted by onimaru55

I'd agree that's not a stone for maintaining a razor but may be useful down the line for some repairs or edge restoration

Yes, I should have mentioned that. I see cudarunner has generously offered to pay half the cost of getting a razor honed by you. If the op is prepared to pay for postage, I will front for the other half. Maybe a couple of photos of the razors from munster would be in order so you can pick the best candidate.

These are my blades which my partner bought for me

The good one out of the two is a boker and the other a bengle I think of which she got for $12 for me to play with

Hey munster, the Boker looks nice, and Bengalls are also great razors, and highly regarded on the forum here, although it looks like you may have some rust close to the edge on that one, again hard to tell from photo. It may be fine. I read on one of your posts that the Boker was provided shave ready, so a bit more info may help. Where did it come from and who honed it? Do you have a strop? Do you have a brush and soap? If yes, have you been able to build a decent lather with it? All these things add up to eventually provide a great shave. It takes a while to learn, but well worth the effort. Once you have about 100 shaves under your belt, it will all start to come together. There is a wealth of information here, use the search button, ask questions. The members here are great, and helpful, and want you to succeed.

I know it's hard to see, but the description of the stone in the URL says No. 25 Damascus camel

https://touch.trademe.co.nz/listing/view/686320238

anyone happen to know what grit it may be?

Originally Posted by munster

I know it's hard to see, but the description of the stone in the URL says No. 25 Damascus camel

https://touch.trademe.co.nz/listing/view/686320238

anyone happen to know what grit it may be?

Barber stones aren't grit rated but sometimes there are instructions on the box that may hint if it's for touchups or not.
Some barber hones can set a bevel so too coarse for end game.