Thread: need stone advice

Originally Posted by TimS

What about lapping film?

Good idea if you can get it to work - wasn't my favorite. But I just thought of something else too OP. Oshawa, Pickering, Ajax all have a ton of Antique shops. Take some time - you might be shocked. You can also visit some Sally Annes or Good Wills, you just never know.

If you want to get started honing on the cheap you might consider the King 1000 or 1200 for bevel setting and then move to the King 6000.
The Kings are not the ultimate waterstones but their availability is good and they are capable of getting an Ebay or antique store razor to shave again.
The 1000 may have a few "rocks" imbedded in it but they can be dug out with a sharp point and the very small resulting hole will not be noticed while honing.
I am not saying you will find these defects in a King 1000 but you might.
The 6000 that I used had no issues and worked well enough.
The key to learning how to hone is to come to a point where you don't blame the hone's deficiencys for your lack of expertise.
Learn how to vary your honing strokes to concentrate your efforts on the areas of the edge that needs extra attention.
Get the bevel even in width on both sides and to very sharp and then a few more strokes with a rolling X pattern with light and then very light contact with the 1000 and then move to the 6000.
Having made the necessary corrections to the bevel with the 1000 you should be able to finish with rolling X strokes on the 6000, finishing with very little to almost no pressure.
You can shave off the 6000 but it will definitely not be a smooth shave.
The use of a leather strop and some chromium oxide are capable of smoothing out the edge.
Shave a bit off the 6000 to find out what sharp is and then smooth out the edge by stropping. If you lose sharpness due to poor stropping technique, go back to the 6000 for a few very light strokes, and try the stropping again.
Also you will find that getting an exceptable shave with minimal gear will probably be easier if you start with a blade made of English steel.
The German, USA, and Swedish steels are more challenging to get to shave smoothly.
Also your time and money will be wasted by trying to learn on Pakistan and Chinese made razor lookalikes.
This post got to be much much longer than I anticipated but I hope that I have steered you in a direction that will give you some satisfaction.

I am not a pro and don't hone as a business, but if you send them to me I'll do them for you no charge. Just cover the cost of return postage.

I also happen to have more webbing and crox than I'll ever use. I'd be happy to throw together a crox-pasted strop for you to maintain their edges. This way you can get a couple of usable razors that you can maintain for quite some time, and not take a chance on cheaper hones that may or may not work terribly well.

PM me if you're interested.

EDIT: should also mention you might want to check out classicedge.ca if you do want to send to a pro in Canada.

I'va done a couple of restores on a small 4 X 10 cm coticule which costed me 40 euro's and if I'm realy honest to myself, the other >100 euro's spend on hones after that was not realy nessesary.

if you go for a small coticule, ask for a hard hone and a soft slurry stone

Another shout for the king 1/6K combi here.

It fits a very nice price point, The 1K side is capable of setting a bevel, and the longer wider stand alone version is used in a few of Gssixgun's video's.

The 6K side is capable of taking the 1K edge and polishing it out to 6K without any problems. The final edge from the 6K will pop hair from the stone when you get the technique right. You should be thinking about a Crox strop to finish your razors.

I can't actually fault the 1/6K combi stone. For the price and the performance it's a winner. The reason people don't use it so much is it's narrow, and the stone likes a good bath before you hone. It's also pretty soft if your doing something heavy on it like scandi grinding a knife. And neither side have the buttery feel of either the Naniwa, Shapton or Norton stones.

Everything else is a step up from this stone, But if your after function and price and that budget is real tight you would be severely pushed to find a better product.


I shaved with nothing but a king 1/6 for 6 months before I upgraded to Naniwa super stones. And I will continue to use the 1K side until i purchase the Naniwa 1 and 3K stones later in the year. If I felt like the stone was a burden I would have sold it on and replaced it with something better.

The 1/8 you have posted cannot be vouched for. I don't know the make, and since it has no name they could be using badly graded material, poor binder, have poor QC in production. At least with the king you get a guarantee, And plenty of reviews.

I bought a very nice 1K diamond plate on Ebay (diamondtools30) from a place that sells diamond lapping plate. It is a bit thin, 1mm, but I put it on a wooded bridge over a piece of rubber drawer liner and it is fine. It is very nice even diamond distribution, looks and feels like a skinny DMT. It is a 8X3 plate for $13.80 with free shipping.

A 1K plate, a Norton 4/8K combo, a chrome ox strop and your good. You may have to spend more time on the 4k to get a nice smooth straight edge off a diamond plate. I find 1K diamond plate can cause micro chipping if too much pressure was used to set the bevel. Better to get the bevels flat and close to meeting on a diamond plate, then switch to a 4K to seal the deal.

The other good thing is free shipping and it got here in a little over a week. I bought 2 plates.

Buy full size stones, you will not regret it… especially when learning to hone.

Film is a very real possibility for you, especially with a 1K plate to do the heavy lifting. You could just do a 3 and 1um films and a piece of glass or marble tile. About 30 bucks for 20 sheets, 60 pieces you can do 4-600 razors. Less than 50 buck for your whole stone/honing setup.

Chrome Ox strop off a 1um film with a piece of paper is a very nice keen edge.

Originally Posted by cannon123

So i don't have much money but need a hone ebay has a 1000 and 8000 combo stone its no nane on it but its 34bucks will that be feasible? Im buying vintage razors and making them shave ready will this work ? And please don't tell me i need the best some possible I've had people on here say it to me and it's not appreciated i don't have much money any help greatly appreciated

Simple answer is no. You will need more than 2 stones to restore razors. Especially don't buy no name stones.
The minimalist, cheap, setup to do what you want IMHO, is the Shapton M5's in 1500 grit, 5k, & 12k, & a means to lap them as needed.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Simple answer is no. You will need more than 2 stones to restore razors. Especially don't buy no name stones.
The minimalist, cheap, setup to do what you want IMHO, is the Shapton M5's in 1500 grit, 5k, & 12k, & a means to lap them as needed.

that's not a minimalist set-up, if you only have to do the one or two razors, and have the time to learn to hone a small 4x10 centimeter coticule will work. bevel setting will be slow but who cares when you only have to do it 1 or 2 times

Do you use a pebble for a slurry stone on that?