Thread: Required Stones

Thanks to engine46 I will have a razor to practice honing with. I am ordering a Norton 4000/8000 stone and am wondering if a 12000 stone is needed, nice to have or unnecessary. If the Norton is not a good first stone, what would you recommend?

want to practice prior to having to do my Ralf Aust, which will be some time as the first honing will be by SRD.

Thanks as always,

David

Norton's are good stones but for myself I like the Naniwa stones. I read about people getting a good shave off the 8K but for me I prefer to finish with the 12K naniwa. That is until a friend of me ruined that for me when he showed me the 20K Suehiro. I really to think that at the least the 12K is needed for a finisher. The 20K is just icing on the cake for me. It will take longer to set the bevel with the 4K than lets say the 1K but after the bevel is set then the 4/8 combo will work. Now all this is relative to what you or someone else prefer. I have owned the 4/8 Norton and the naniwa . for me the naniwa was easier to use. I'm just a beginner compared to a lot of the folks here and I need all the help I can get. As you travel down this path you'll make up your mind on something then change it many times. That's just part of the fun we all have playing with sharp objects.

I have Naniwa, and went initially with the 12K as a touch up stone, then added the 5k and 8k....lastly when I decided I was going to really go for full honing I got the 1K to set the bevel. I am very much a beginner, though, so went on the fact that I heard the Naniwas were easier to learn and so started with them.

nothing wrong with a good 4/8 Norton , most of us have started on them and lots of help if you have any issues .. same with the naniwa stones ..

me personally would venture into a chosera 1k before the 12k but only if you plan on buying razors off of the bay or non shave ready razors that will need a bevel reset or some edge work .. if all you want to do is maintain your current edges and want to buy a finisher then the 12k is a good choice , but it is highly recommended that you learn that 4/8 or what ever system you want to use b4 you go after that finisher ! then after you get to a comfortable edge you will truly be able to judge many diff finishers and pick your poison least that's my opinion , I always tell everyone this about the walk before you run cause I ran before I could even craw and it left me with a longer learning curve and a lot of frustration when I started honing , now I enjoy it as much as shaving and still have much to learn !!!

Okay, in my shopping cart from SRD I have placed the Norton 4000/8000 as a starter stone, as the cost is about the same as one Naniwa stone. I also have a 12000 Naniwa for finishing and a Norton flattening stone.

Does this sound like a good place to start? See what I like and then go from there. I have always believed in crawl, walk, run but also believed in purchasing good tools.

I would get the dmt 325 over the naniwa flattening plate. The flattening plate will eventually not be flat, and a dmt 325 doubles as a very good low grit hone for really chipped razors.

Scrap the Norton flattening stone and get a DMT 325 (coarse) instead. Will last a very long time.

Originally Posted by apipeguy

Okay, in my shopping cart from SRD I have placed the Norton 4000/8000 as a starter stone, as the cost is about the same as one Naniwa stone. I also have a 12000 Naniwa for finishing and a Norton flattening stone.

Does this sound like a good place to start? See what I like and then go from there. I have always believed in crawl, walk, run but also believed in purchasing good tools.

Except for the Flattening plate it sound s good. The DMT 325 would be my NO. 1 choice. The other thing would be to watch the honing videos . the two people I have watched are Lynn Abrams and Ssixgun. Both are very informative. They helped me greatly.

Thanks to all who have commented sor far, the Norton flattening stone has been deleted from my cart. I'll wait til morning to place the order and keep checking for more input.

Sorry to "pipe" in again, but is the consensus that the Naniwa 3000/8000 would be a better choice than the Norton 4000/8000?

Thanks again