Need suggestion on deciding what to get

Hi, relatively new here. Really enjoy reading and learning from experiences others have posted. Now I need some help deciding on my next purchase. Here is what I currently have:

1. DMT 600/1200
2. King 6000 (and a nagura stone)
3. Chrome Oxide (probably not with high purity since I bought it from woodcraft)
4. a high quality 3" hanging strop

My main issue is that even though I could get BBS sometime, it's not without irritation and I can't do that daily without turning the enjoyable experience into a painful one. I know there is probably much to improve in my shaving skills but at least I would like to get the hardware right and have it out of the way.

My goal is to get consistent BBS daily shave without (much)irritation, I currently own only 2 straight razors, one is a J.A Henckles I got off ebay and honed myself using the above setup and achieved BBS shave(with some irritation), the other is a DOVO ENCINA 6/8 Stainless from SRD. I probably will acquire few more razor and would like to do my own honing, so I think it's worth it to invest in a more refined honing kit.

Please feel free to elaborate or add any new suggestions. thanks!

get the 10K.

The DTM and King are fine as bevel setter and edge refinement.

I've had many shaves from the 6K king onto crox onto a regular strop. Hair will pop right off the 6K when you get it right, and if your at the stage where this happens then adding the 10K will allow you to just get a little more out of the razors.

The strop is also pretty important, but don't get caught up in getting the best one. Get one that works if that means using a thick belt then that's fine. For a few months I used a leather workers off cut as a strop. It's just a hunk of 3mm veg tan. When I moved up to an oiled leather strop it was an improvement but only to the physical act of stropping... The shave is indistinguishable for me.

You should also get the good grade Crox. I missed that little snippet at the end of the poll so I should have said option 5.

Your poll has no "none of the above" choice. :) Seriously, I would suggest the 12K SuperStone rather than the 10K. It's not that big a step from the 6K. Secondly, that should be all you need unless you are doing a lot of "rescue work" on vintage blades in which case you would need a bevel setter. The 1K King is inexpensive and will work just fine. There are many opinions about the subject but mine is that diamonds are good for repair work, removing chips, reshaping a toe or heel, etc. but are not the best choice for bevel setting. Also, going to the 6K after the DMT will mean quite a bit of work to remove the diamond scratches. In the end it's whatever suits your taste, of course.

rs,
Tack

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes I do plan to get some quality Chrome Oxide. It's also interesting to me that none of you think a 1 micron diamond paste and a paddle strop is needed. I do have decent 3" strop similar to SRD's 3" Premium Bridle Strop though.

I thought about 12K stone, but it's significantly more expensive than the 10K and in terms of difference, and my guess is that 10k/6k is much more of a difference than 10/12k, and the difference between 10k/12k is almost negligible if I were to use pasted strop afterward, or am I wrong?

The other concern I have with the 10k Naniwa is their quality after reading this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...0-12000-a.html
I don't have the energy to read through all the posts but I get an impression that there might be quality issue with the 10k & 12k Naniwa stone. Is that something I should be worried about? thanks!

EDIT: oh my razor does pass the HHT test easily after King 6000-> pasted strop, but as I remember I couldn't pass the HHT right off the King 6K.

The thing about the diamond plates (and to some extend the same goes for the CrOx), is that you round down the bevel, which means that after you've used that, you can only refresh your edge using the strop with CrOx, there is of course nothing wrong with that but if you want to refresh it using you're 10 or 12 K stone you won't be tatching the edge, so essentially above 8K go with either a strop with fine CrOx or a finishing stone and a plane leather strop, not both!

10k stones are rated ~1 micron, so getting Naniwa 10k and a 1 micron spray makes no sense.
I'd go for 10k stone and 0.5 micron spray.

Thanks for all the feedbacks! If both the 10k Naniwa & 1 micron diamond spray are similar in micron size, is there a performance difference that make most people choose 10K naniwa + 0.5 CrOx than 1 micron diamond spray + 0.5 CrOx on paddle strop? or that's just personal preference?

just want to understand all the differences. thank you :beer1:

I think it comes down to personal preference for the most part.

There are pastes in all micron grades. Not only the fine stuff, but also the course as well. There are many wonder/ time saving/ innovative products documented in shaving history. And the paste system worked.

Every system comes at a price.

The strop based system requires multiple strops all setup to hone, pastes, and just as much time. It's probably a little more susceptible to failure mechanically. One slip and you have to replace you 10 micron strop ect. The system is probably a lot harder to work with smiling, frowning, poor spine wear and chip removal. In fact chips could kill a strop outright. And you don't have a medium for removing swarf like the hones (water/oil). Meaning eventually your strops will clog up and need scrubbing potentially changing how they feel.

The stone based system also has problems, it's not portable, needs water/oil. And you need to be setup to hone. That been said because you have a flat surface to work with, and you can manipulate the blade and spine around problems. Tape, x-strokes, bread knifing ect. It's also got a higher monetary outlay.

At the top end of things your after a polished edge, and your looking for that final refinement to your edge. Keeping everything working on a flat surface makes a lot of sense, your edge is at it's thinnest, and if you have been having to work around a problem, tape the spine for instance then your final polish will follow on the same tape and keep the same settings dialed it.

As soon as you move onto a pasted strop the tape should be off. Your making the final polish to the whole bevel, and spine, and re aligning the edge ready to shave. It makes very little sense in my head to take the tape off and continue to attempt to remove metal and refine the edge... You were already there on the stone, why change the geometry and risk missing a spot.

There is no such option, but I would sell the 6k, get a 4/8k Norton, and a 10 or 12k Naniwa super :) If thats out of your price range, than the Norton first, and buy the 12k when you will have the money to. I don't like the paddle strop option with 1 micron paste, its like avoiding a problem with another. 600/1200 DMT, 4/8k Norton, 12k naniwa, and crox pasted strop is all you will ever need to hone a razor.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've already placed an order for the Naniwa 10k and some high quality CrOx.

So that's the setup I'm going to use for now. My thought is that it cannot be worse than what I have right now, and even with 1200 DTM -> 6K -> lesser quality CrOx, I could get BBS with some irritation, adding a 10K and replace with higher quality CrOx should at least make the shave smoother. Anyway I'll see how this goes, and thanks again for all the suggestions.

If you have the spare $ that SRD modular paddle with the replaceable (magnetic backing) leather and felt pads is truly a great tool to add to the arsenal. Really a fine piece of design and workmanship.

I am deciding on what stones to start honing with and is the belgian coticule all its cracked up to be? I know I need a lapping stone but do they come in different grits (belgian coticules)

I like the coticule stones but most people here will advise the norton 4/8 K because it is easier. I started with a coticule and don't regret it! it gives a nice shave and with some work you can do small repairs with it, if you go that way I would advise a stone from the Les Latneuses vein with a hybrid coticule and normal coticule side, the normal side is quick in this vein and the hybrid side on of the best finishers (I still have to test mine, lapping takes a long time)

I'm sure there are a billion threads on here discussing coticule, heck i've read 50 i'm sure, but I'm too busy to search and post all the results here as links as i sometimes do.

short answer: you can get a fine shaving edge off coticule but you need a bevel setter to get started if doing full re-hones or repair or restorative work. and that's the fax jax. :p

and

Don't hone with anything until you've seen at least a dozen good instructional vids on that youtube. cheers!!!

What are you lacking the most?

Rex is right , dot means diamonds and ant residue will do great harm

Yes, careful

Chrome oxide paste is smoother than diamond spray

Just received the 10k Naniwa, honed a recently acquired Henckels Marca Due Gemelli from 1200->6000->10k then followed by CrOx on the back of leather strop and had great result!
Couple of things I've noticed from a newbie perspective, I could get quite a bit more out of the 6000 stone by honing without slurry with few ultra light passes before moving onto the 10k; semi treated back side of the leather strop with CrOx seems to work better for me the CrOx on linen.