Thread: Thinking about a honing stone set for straights! Looking for suggestions!

Okay, I think I am gonna like straight shaving as I have been playing around with one lately. My question now is about a stone set for honing!
I am looking for a set recommendation that is not over done as I don't want and hopefully don't need every progression from 1000 on up to 12k or so but what some might consider "bare minimum" as I don't have much cash to work with at this time. I am also watching other groups to see if anyone posts stones for sale at a good price.


Anyway, my thought was to use Norton waterstones as the grits of this type of setup seemed like what can be used to get a nice edge on a straight. This set consists of two stones, a 220/1000 and a 4000/8000 plus a holder and a flattener stone. See the link below! If link is NOT allowed please delete or let me know and I will remove it.


Is there any other setup that is better and/or cheaper that I should consider if I decide to go down this road?? I used to enjoy sharpening my own knives and folders but that was many, many years ago and all my gear has been sold since then so might consider getting some stones back as I enjoyed doing my own sharpening work.


Thx. in advance for any and all comments and suggestions! I am just thinking about it so not quite sure I will dive in but just gathering some ideas and prices, unless the right deal came along!!

Water Stone Kit

You can maintain your razor indefinitely with the 4/8 k norton. I would opt for plain old wet/dry sandpaper on a kitchen tile rather than the flattening stone in that set. Learning to hone and shave off the 8k will serve you well if you decide to upgrade to a finer finisher in the future. The 1k stone will only be needed to set a bevel or repair a chipped edge. If you find you need a finer edge,try a cheap balsa strop pasted with chromium oxide.

If you want to keep it to a minimum, you can just get a barber hone and that will maintain your razors forever.

If you want to go with modern hones, the Norton 4/8k is great. The Norton 220/1000 is not. The 220 side is pretty much useless. The 1k is perfectly acceptable. You might as well get a single grit 1k.

Does anyone sell used/cheaper stones of these grits online or in forums that are in good shape? Pricing these out can get quite expensive!

Originally Posted by SirMike

Does anyone sell used/cheaper stones of these grits online or in forums that are in good shape? Pricing these out can get quite expensive!

You want cheap, you get Cheap,Buy some great stones,is a once in a lifetime investment

Buy a 12k Super Stone and learn to maintain your razor.

Then a 4/8 combo stone if you want to hone other razors. You will not need a 1k unless you start doing major restoration work and even then the 4K will do anything a 1k can.

3 stones are all you need about $150-160.

And No, no one ever sells them, why would you?

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Buy a 12k Super Stone and learn to maintain your razor.

Then a 4/8 combo stone if you want to hone other razors. You will not need a 1k unless you start doing major restoration work and even then the 4K will do anything a 1k can.

3 stones are all you need about $150-160.

And No, no one ever sells them, why would you?

Yeah, I know it is hard to impossible to find used stones and agree that no one sells theirs! Where are you finding the three stones for about $150-160? I am checking around and for those three stones, 1k Naniwa, 4k/8k Norton and a 12k Naniwa is coming in at over $200.

Right now all you need is the 12K

A 4/8 combo later, a combo and 12K is 160.

You don’t need a 1K yet.

The function of a 1K is to remove old, soft steel from a vintage razors edge, remove nicks and to recreate a bevel.

For years I used nothing more than a sheet of wet/dry sandpaper ( 500/1000 grit) to do those things. It worked just fine.

To simply maintain a razors edge either a naniwa 12K or a barber hone, such as a 3 line Swaty or Apart will do the job just fine.

It is when the 12k or barber hones no longer do the job thats when you need a 4/8.

Hope this helps

Originally Posted by SirMike

Yeah, I know it is hard to impossible to find used stones and agree that no one sells theirs! Where are you finding the three stones for about $150-160? I am checking around and for those three stones, 1k Naniwa, 4k/8k Norton and a 12k Naniwa is coming in at over $200.

If you want full progression from 1k to 12k then yes, it's close to $200, but you said you do not want that and want only the minimum. Which is either the 12k naniwa, or the 8k/4k norton, or a good barber hone. Or a coticule, or a good thuringian, or even the PHIG hone if you want to trade the industrial precision of man man hones for the romance of a piece of rock.
And if you want to get something without the extensive proven track record of these there are even more possibilities.

My advise would be to not overthink it and just get one of the options that everybody has already recommended. If you don't like it or decide you want something else and can't afford to keep all of it you should be able to sell it at a discount as clearly the supply side on the secondary market is pretty weak.

You can also post an ad in the classifieds.