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

Originally Posted by Robeth

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.

Check out the Nick Shaves videos....he has a couple with Howard Schecter of The Perfect Edge, discussing SR honing...
Howard has been in the honing/sharpening biz for many years...if it has a cutting edge, he WILL make it "Perfect"....No kidding!!
I tend to agree with others here who have suggested a single 8K or higher stone for "refreshing" your ST...a QUALITY strop is also VERY useful...
And my own take --- Keep pastes, etc. OFF THE STROP!! HONE with stone, STROP with leather!!
ABOVE ALL ELSE.....DON'T RUSH ANYTHING!!! Learn from the ground up...and ENJOY THE JOURNEY!! It's a real EYE-OPENER!!
Good luck!!

Close shaves should SOOTHE ya....NOT SCARE ya!!

Originally Posted by dasstraightguy

Check out the Nick Shaves videos....he has a couple with Howard Schecter of The Perfect Edge, discussing SR honing...
Howard has been in the honing/sharpening biz for many years...if it has a cutting edge, he WILL make it "Perfect"....No kidding!!
I tend to agree with others here who have suggested a single 8K or higher stone for "refreshing" your ST...a QUALITY strop is also VERY useful...
And my own take --- Keep pastes, etc. OFF THE STROP!! HONE with stone, STROP with leather!!
ABOVE ALL ELSE.....DON'T RUSH ANYTHING!!! Learn from the ground up...and ENJOY THE JOURNEY!! It's a real EYE-OPENER!!
Good luck!!

Close shaves should SOOTHE ya....NOT SCARE ya!!

I cant understand where Howard Schecter of The Perfect Edge is coming from, or what he's talking about.
Obviously he has more experience than me but some of his ideas dumbfound me.
He doesn't strop because he believes it is detrimental to the blades edge.
He also says that he will take a coticule over a Jnat any day because Jnats have soft spots and basically he suggests they are all hype .

There are many opinions but at the end of the day you have to find out what works for you