Thread: A Begginer to Honing!

Hi All

A relative newbie to straight shaving here (about 6 months), and am looking at investing in some hones so I can keep my razor sharp. The problem is I literally have no idea what I am doing (good start I know). So I just have a few questions:

What kind of grit stones should I be using?
Do I need a set of stones?
Are oil, water or dry stones the best (and what do they mean)?
Where is a good place to buy them (in UK, online is fine).

Thanks in advance for any help!

It completely depends on what you plan on doing with them. Do you just want to maintain sharp razors? Do you want to restore old beaters?

Have you read anything about hones in the Library?

Shave longer before you start honing.

and read a lot, as Utopian suggests:What hone(s), paste(s), or spray(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Library

I'm right there with you Bananaby. Got my first straight last Christmas, then got a Norton 4K/8K hone sometime afterwards. Pretty sure I rolled my edge right off the bat with my strop, but alls well that ends well. I got my Norton at a woodworking shop, since those guys have to keep their steels sharp too. Look around on your island for folks who work with wood. Check out Lynn Abrams videos on honing on Youtube. You'll do just fine. If you are like me and you don't have a grandfather to teach you everything, then honing is just like shaving; you will never learn if you don't start sometime.

I started honing after about three months. Have Naniwa Super Stones; 1,3,5,8 and 12. I would start with just a 12k for refreshing and see where you want to go. Full restores or just maintenance. Hopefully you know what a shave ready blade really is. That's the first step, then it is duplicating that edge.

Honing gives great rewards and perhaps not as difficult as some make it seem to be.

Nothing better than getting a BBS from a blade that you refined yourself.

Good luck.

It sounds to me like what you are looking at for your starting point is learning to refresh your edge. In order to do that you need a finish hone. A generally acceptable definition of that is anything 8K or greater. Oil, water and dry hones are what is used for lubricating the blade on the steel. Generally they are one of those and do not cross back and forth. A good place to start is with a synthetic hone, most of which are water hones. There are a few brands to choose from, and likely 12K will be your target, but you could start a little higher or a little lower. There are many naturals as well, but most of those are a relationship that you develop, not many are the same due to the uniqueness of natural, but they tend to be close. It seems to me that the Shapton gets recommended a lot here. I have no idea what you have close at hand but do look around for someone to help show you the ropes. It takes a lot of video and solo honing to equal an evening or afternoon with an experienced member. If they have meets that you can travel to that is even better.

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Straight Razor Place - Beginners Tips: November 2014

I'd say it depends on how much you want to invest into it.
If your rich , then a good place to start is with the full Shapton Glass range / holder & pond.
If your poor buy the Norton 4/8k combo stone and work with that

Bananby, here is your first tip: The best price around is right at the top of this page in Straight Razor Designs DMT 325 diamond stone lapping tool, which you need to keep you stones flat, or use 3-400 wet or dry.

An simple Idea, : Maybe some Gent's would like to sell off their new guy stones after they have moved on to greener pastures and stones, Maybe a newby section in the classifieds to put all things newguy? When I pass on I would like my stones to go to those interested in sharpening steel.

Originally Posted by FAL

Bananby, here is your first tip: The best price around is right at the top of this page in Straight Razor Designs DMT 325 diamond stone lapping tool, which you need to keep you stones flat, or use 3-400 wet or dry.

An simple Idea, : Maybe some Gent's would like to sell off their new guy stones after they have moved on to greener pastures and stones, Maybe a newby section in the classifieds to put all things newguy? When I pass on I would like my stones to go to those interested in sharpening steel.

I don't think a special section is really necessary, with a little bit of reading here you can get an idea of what is good and what is bad, besides some guys will go straight to expensive hones and stop there and others will do the same with more budget friendly items. You get used to what you have and as long as it falls into the spectrum of hones suitable for razors then it will be acceptable.

For fear of sounding like an unhelpful curmudgeon I would strongly advise reading through both the library and the hones/honing sub fora. This will help you to get an Idea of what you would like then ask some slightly less general questions, besides once you get more than about half a dozen responses you will have at least 4 different answers to your questions.

I purchased a chosera 1K, and naniwa super stones in 3,8,10 and 12k and an Atoma 400 grit lapping plate, to date I have only really got use out of the 8k+ stones and lapping plate.

In my opinion buy a decent 12k hone and lapping plate (or use wet and dry) and just maintain the edge you have, when the 12k stops cutting it buy a coarser hone.