Thread: Hones

I got my first hone two days ago a Norton 4000/8000.Being new to straight razor shaving I did not have much confidence in using it.I thought that the way to go would be to buy a couple of second hand razors from Ebay and practice on them as I did not want to ruin the new ones I purchased in the past few months.The two razors I practiced on was a Bengall and an Eye whitness.I watched the videos that Lynn did on honing and followed them as best as I could.There is loads of information on honing but I decided to follow one chain of thought rather than being overloaded.Yesterday I shaved with the Eye whitness and today I used the Bengall.I found the shaves to be very good bearing in mind I have yet to get a finishing stone which will improve the shave.I am a very happy chappy indeed.Thanks all Dovahkin

Welcome! Great job! Were you able to get the bevel set pretty well on the 4k? What did you use to lap it? I know the 4k side on mine needed quite a bit to make it useable

Hiya I only had the Norton and my idea was to use the two razors from Ebay for that.Forgot about the bevel but was happy at the outcome

Hiya I Should have said I did not lap the stone and as far as I could see the bevel was ok.I was more than pleased with the shaves and will eventually get a 1000 stone to smooth The Norton

I would recommend a 1k stone for bevel setting definitely, anything above that is more suitable for polishing and would take forever for setting bevels, then all you really need beyond that would be a good finishing stone, barber hones are cheap just be sure and research the brands before buying them, some arent much better than your 8k norton. Lots of choices in finishing stones though out there! Good luck!

Definitely lap your hone faces they might look flat but not even close when to do this using the grid lines technique
I only use 320 wet & dry on a sheet of heavy glass for all mine
I started with the Norton 4/8k also then got the Naniwa 1 & 12ks to work either side
You can set a bevel with the 4k but sure takes longer just depends on the starting edge
Then if you can get it smooth & shave ready on the 4/8 then look at progressing to a finisher as this will only polish your previous work
If you want to do lots of blades then go a 1k bevel setter but you can get away with out one if not

Here is a thread with Lynn using the Norton 4/8

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...ideo-lynn.html

Lots of info here

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS8...an-nCMQ/videos

Originally Posted by SS502MC

Here is a thread with Lynn using the Norton 4/8

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...ideo-lynn.html

Lots of info here

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS8...an-nCMQ/videos

Thanks for help I am working my way through these Kindest regards Dovahkin

Many have learned on the Norton 4/8k, myself included. The 8k side can yield great shaves after some practice. Sometimes I will finish using the 8k just to see how my honing has improved.. Then of course go on to better finishers after I get an 8k test shave. I like seeing what all my stones can do, the only down side to this is that my whiskers don't grow fast enough! That also means that it can take me a week to finally get to the final finishers and call my edge good for a while. haha. Its a fun ride, enjoy it! What helped my honing improve the most was sitting down a couple of afternoons with some of the pros in my area, might check to see if there is anyone in your area willing to lend a hand and even try some other stones!