Thread: My current collection of hones.

Just 1 pic of my hone collection. big enough for me, (small pile of rocks to sum lol)

Now the question is, do you know how to use them? Take this as a friendly question and not an insult.

Yes I do, Ive been using straights for nearly 5 years and been honing for about 1 year,
Nice question lol.

I run into to many people that have large collections of items such as tools, cameras, guitars and such but couldn't use them properly. I have a large collection of SR's but only a few stones as I have mentioned in previous posts and I do quite well with those. I can understand having a large number of different screw drivers because not all screws are created equally, maybe if I tried a few of the newer synthetic stones I might change my tune but I have never found a knife or razor that I could not put an edge to. Now having said that, I do have a Norton 4/8K and 12K on the way to try out.

I do pick up hones when I can hence the amount I have (more than I need) but as most are natural stones I know they can vary a bit, still finding out what I like best,
I do get on well with the Welsh Tri hone set nice stones

I have to be careful because that could just well be the next collection I start

Been there and done that. Nice collection of rocks. I had up to 60 at one time, including barber hones. Down to 16 + one barber hone, kept the bare essentials .....

It is fun to experiment with different rocks, but ........ like the 'House Of The RIsing Sun',........ just don't do what I have done.

Nice bunch of rocks. I like the two in the upper right.

One thing I dont get is if you have the stones, you can learn them , if you dont, then you can never learn them. So is there an upside to having less stones? I dont think so, as one stone is too many if you dont use it.

Originally Posted by bill3152

One thing I dont get is if you have the stones, you can learn them , if you dont, then you can never learn them. So is there an upside to having less stones? I dont think so, as one stone is too many if you dont use it.

What you say is true AFAIC. The thing to watch out for is not to get into HAD early on. Get your basic setup, whether it is norton, naniwa, shapton ...... learn on the basic setup before going for more and more hones. I suppose most guys do that anyway. IME if you get too many too soon it is difficult to discipline yourself to stick with a setup until you learn it, and move on to the next.

Eventually, if you stick with it, you'll learn them, but it just is easier to learn one variety well before getting a bunch of 'em. Once you've got the basics down with one set of hones it is far easier to figure out other rocks. I always go back to what jazz saxophonist Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker said, "Master your instrument, then forget all that stuff and play." Master the set you have, then venture out into the different rocks.