Printable View
Hey guys,
I'm looking to get a basic setup to maintain a nice edge. I've been looking through the honing section for several weeks and I'm ready to pull the trigger. I'm brand new to this so I plan on buying a few gold dollar razors to practice on before attempting to sharpen my Dovo razor. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
-DMT D8C 8 inch Dia-Sharp Continuous Diamond Coarse
-Norton 4000/8000 OR Naniwa 12000
Thanks
Now I only really do refreshing on my blades, I let the professionals do the honing, especially with that all important initial honing to shave ready and the vital bevel set.
If you want to go the whole route, from bevel setting up to finishing, you'd have to start with a bevel setting stone, a 1k or something similar, now Lynn Abrams has a video that shows you how to bevel set with the Norton 4/8 and to the first point of getting a shave ready edge from an 8k stone.
The thinking is, you should be able to get a shave ready edge off an 8k before going any higher up the finishing ladder, for instance to a Nani 12k.
Personally, while I have the Norton 4/8k, it seems the farthest I've made it is to refresh a few of my blades using the Nani 12k, then some laps on my Escher, then crox, then leather.
IMO, and what works for me, I prefer to get my razors professionally honed, and then with proper care of the blade, refreshing with a Nani 12k or something similar will literally provide years of use before a total bevel set is required, but if you're new to this, we tend to bang up our edge a little more in the beginning.
The pro's will chime in soon, hope this helps....
If you want a minimalist setup for maintaining your blade, check Modines research on barbers hones at razor and stone and get a good one. They are way way cheaper than anything else and will do an excellent job on maintenance. You can keep an edge going for an in determinant time.
Thanks for the feedback.
If the edge is not damaged, why would the bevel need to be set?
If all you have done is shave and the edge is dulled from that and not damaged there is no need to bevel set. If you have no desire to do multiple restores there is little or no economical sense to getting a full honing set. Most people learn the full hone for the challenge I would expect. Or because their RAD had them with so many razors sending them all out for honing would have been a crazy cost. A pro honed edge can be maintained forever, unless it gets damaged from dropping or rolling the edge etc ect
Ok, that clears it up. At this point I'm just trying to learn the basics and refresh the blade every few months. I'll start reading about the barber hones that you mentioned in the previous post.Quote:
Originally Posted by RezDog
What RezDog said... but, with that said, I took a stonier route. I started with the Naniwa 12K and have to say, I would do it again.
Barber hones will require some research. Enjoyable research, really. There are so many and the variations... Let's just say, I'd been stuck on BHs and haven't gotten anywhere else since,,,, well, except researching Bonsai and veggie gardening. Thanks alot SRP ;)
I think you are on the right track. To refresh good edges, a 12k Naniwa is excellent and is easier to get info on use on than the plethora of barber hones out there. A 4/8 Norton will become an old standby as you learn to do more. All you will actually need from there is a 1k stone as you learn to restore edges and set bevels. The DMT is indispensable for maintaining all of these hones.
Soak the Norton, don't soak the Naniwa, take a screwdriver shaft to the surface of the DMT as you get it to knock off loose, big diamonds. You will be set. JMO
I to am on this journey. I have recently acquired a 3 line swaty, a naniwa 12k, a c12k (cnat), and a DMT 325. Frankly I have plenty of finishers now. I also bought 3 gold dollars to practice on. So I see a bevel setter in my near future also. So yea I overdid it on the finishers but hopefully that's where I can learn to tell the difference and what my face likes. Its been a fun journey to this point.
I've only SR shaved about ten times and my improvements have been vast thanks to this site !
If you want to get the finishing under control you will only ned the 12k, i jumped in and bought a full set of nainiwa/ choseras and have barely used them in the 4 or 5 months i have owned them, with the exception of the finishers 10 and 12k, i have one at work and one at home, if i didnt work away i would just sell the 10k. The basics of any honing are the same so if you get a feel for your finisher and feel like you want to do more that would be when i would suggest buying more/ coarser stones.
For maintaining a shave ready blade a single fine stone should do the job, if it's just for occasional use you could further save by lapping on wet/dry paper in place of the D8C. For razors straight from the factory or off ebay there's often a lot more ground to cover, you may need to go down to 1K or below. D8C>King 1K>Coticule is my attempt at minimal stones & bugdet to get from butter knife to shaving sharp.
I see a lot of king 1k/6k combo stones on flea bay. Not terribly expensiveQuote:
Originally Posted by Proinsias
So it seems the consensus is to go with the Naniwa 12k & DMT D8C
Then if I decide down the road to go into restoration or bevel setting I can purchase a lower grit stone.
Thats what i would do, but i am not the most experienced of honers,Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
As everyone has suggested grab the Nani 12k. If you decided to explore honing further and like the feel of the Nani 12k; I would say consider the 8k and 5k Nani vs. the Norton. The prices are similar, but the feedback/feeling of the Nanis is similar across the board. The Norton 4k, while quite effective, Has a very unpleasant, rough, gritty feeling. I love my Norton 8k though but ended up buying an additional Nani 5k to bypass the 4k side. That's if your like the feel of the 12k though. Good luck and keep us posted.
I received the DMT and the Nani 12k today. I plan on destroying a couple gold dollars this weekend. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Show those edges who's boss Doug.
In order to break in the DMT, roughly how many laps do I need to run the screwdriver shaft?
For mine it took about 15...you can feel the little "bumps" on the screwdriver when you start. When you're done the stone should stop hearing or feeling any inconsistencies.
OK, just did 15 laps and it seems smooth.
Thanks for the help
When deciding if you need a Naniwa 12k or a barber hone to refresh your edges, bear in mind that all Naniwa 12ks are just about exactly alike in composition and performance provided that the edge has been properly honed from scratch.
On the other hand, the composition of barber hones can be a bit different from one barber hone to another and you may get varying results from one barber hone to another. IMO you will have a better shot at successfully refreshing your edge with the Naniwa 12k than with a barber hone, at least until you get some honing experience under your belt.
However some of us find that refreshing with a barber hone is simple and fast. As stated above by Rez, barber hones are the least expensive of the two so just try both ways and pick your poison. Enjoy.
Thanks for the tips guys.
I just finished my first run at honing. I started off by lapping the naniwa under running water with the DMT and I felt the process went smoothly. Then I proceeded to sharpen this old straight razor with x strokes that I saw Lynn doing on a youtube video. I tried to apply minimal pressure and keep the blade flat on the stone. I have no way of checking my results but I think overall it went well.
You have this ultimate test the shave test.
It would help if guys learning to hone would pony up for an ugly, yet sound vintage blade in lieu of a gold dollar to learn on.Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
Learn how to hone a razor. Not substandard razor-shaped objects!. Failure with a GD is seemingly easy. Success with a quality blade is, more often, Much easier! ;). JMO
You'll need more than that to get GD working... Well in a reasonable amount of time i.e.Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
Yes. That's the thing that keeps resonating in my mind. Lately, I've heard of new people(I'm new too) buying Gold Dollar razors to practice on. What they mean, learn on.
It's NOT a good razor to learn on and can end in discourage and defeat. I'd rather see people hit the 'tique stores and such and avoid the avoid list Brands of Straight Razors to Avoid - Straight Razor Place Library
I wish you the best, but don't be discouraged if you aren't able to achieve shave-ready results. Grab some know good Sheffield or real solingen steel. I don't want to discourage you, but encourage you by telling you that if you don't get results with the GD razor, don't quit.
K/R,,,
Tried out the razor today and it seemed good, however my technique leaves a lot to be desired. Also, about the gold dollar razor......I didn't buy it to shave with.....it will be my razor to practice with on the hone.
This is my experience and the way I understand it.Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
Shaving is the ultimate shave test to be done when you are absolutely finished honing. I don't know of any other method to truly measure the progress of one's honing skills without actually putting steel to flesh.
kind regards,
Simon
So I did 20 laps on the naniwa 12k with my Dovo 5/8..…..and it was noticeably easier to shave..... Whiskers came off effortlessly.... .so I guess it was a success
I had the same experience with a vintage razor that was tugging. Congratulations!Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
Update:
The gold dollar razors came in last week. Now I've heard plenty about these, however my intention was to practice honing with the blades. Well long story short I can't even do that. When the razor is laid flat part of the blades edge does not touch the hone. Now I'd imagine this is due to the razor being ground down poorly when it was manufactured. Anyways I will just have to practice on my other razors.
Well actually you may be able to fix this problem with a dremel. Is the issue in the heel and shoulder area? My gd had issues as well but nothing too crazy to fix; plus you learn something new for future razor projects.
Actually, thats the point with practicing with GD's.Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
The idea is these razors don't have, generally, good geometry, and by using an ink marker on the blade, whether you use tape or not seems to be a personal preference thing. But the idea is you learn to use different angles, ways to do the strokes that you end up with a bevel and then you move up the ladder.
It is seldom you will get a perfect blade, and the idea is to use these GD's to learn how to approach honing razor's with less than perfect geometry.
I just got two new one's today, managed to get one to shave ready 1st try finally..the other one I have, brand new, unfortunately has pretty nice geometry, so it won't be that much of a challenge.
Others will chime in, but I'm slowly getting there myself....
It's a shame. Normally I would recommend a few ugly razors from eBay to start out with. Nothing great, but cheap. The things I'd look for are as follows. 1) that they are capable of taking a decent edge. That's important if you ever want to know success. 2) anything known to be geometrically challenging. It's enough to learn how to get the very basics down pat, the added problems of geometry and the need to perform intricate maneuvers is asking for a lot of frustration. 3) no wedges. Give yourself a fighting chance in the early going or be prepared to be frustrated.
Phrank,
You make a good point about the GD. But in my case I only have a naniwa 12k and from what I read that hone by itself will not fix a major geometry issue. Right?
I have the Norton 4/8 and a Nani 12k. I've followed Lynn's extensive videos on bevel setting with the 4k and getting the blade shaveable on the 8k and on to the 12k. He also has an excellent video on refreshing razors overall, using multiple methods. All worth watching...Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
Now, I'm fairly certain you could set a bevel with a 12k, it just may take you several years...:p
Maybe down the road if I pickup a naniwa 5k & 8k I'll attempt it. But for now I'm focused on maintaining edge. I'll check out those videos.
Here's the video I was mentioning where Lynn A goes through the various methods to refresh a razor. If you get your blade pro honed for the first time, and you're practiced and proficient with your stropping, you can probably go for a year at least, if not years, before you may require another full honing.Quote:
Originally Posted by doug954
Think this is along the lines of what you're looking for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=