Beginner question: what hone to get?

Right, I wasnt sure where to post this one, but since this section is about honing equipment, I thought why not ^-^

So I have a 400/800 grit and a 2000/5000 grit sharpening stone for honing my knifes. I read somewhere that a 5000 grit stone is the minimal fineness needed for sharpening a razor. My question now is do I need a special hone for my razor or is the 5000 grit side of my stone enough?

Also if I need a different stone for honing my razor, which one would be the easiest to find (i.e. at an online shop) and is the most budget friendly?

You could probably get by with a 10,000 grit naniwa superstone. What brand is your 5,000? Lots of info in the library.

Personally I'd say get the Norton 4/8. It will put a shaveable edge on the razor with minimal effort. When I started I went through so many cheap options until I accepted that there was no cheap option. I could have bought the Norton 5 times by the time I learned the lesson!

In my opinion the Norton offers real value for money, it's user friendly and most of all it works

^ this.

Sure you can scrape by with cheap options, but you'll have to replace them in the long run.

I would also advise getting a proven method well documented in use for razors. This will make any questions you have much easier to answer. Many will suggest a synthetic route.. I don't see why not.

There is no right or wrong way to shave ready. Only time, trial and error, a few painful shaves and persistence. At the end of the day if it comfortably takes hair off your face you did it right and it doesn't matter what stone got you there. I wish you luck..

My vote. A synthetic 8-10k.

technonine, are confident enough in your current shaving skills, i.e.: beard pattern growth, well built lather and a currently pro honed razor to want to attempt honing a razor. Knife honing is to razor honing as apples are to pineapples. A whole dark pit of so many variables that you could fall into and possibly ruin a good razor. There is a reason we stress learning the basic shaving skills to the point of being automatic to your day before trying to hone your own. Many members might say that it is one in a couple of hundred that can master razor honing right off.

If your just starting out with razor maintenance. Have some high quality chromium oxide pasted on either a balsa plank or fabric strop of some kind and either get a naniwa 10 or 12k hone for touch ups. You can maintain a straight razor shave ready just with those 2 things. Later you can add coarser stones 8k and 4 or 5k and be able to restore most edges to functionality with those. Depends how much you want to get into it after that.

You really should check the library here.
Razorfaust and the others are right on.
But you must(very important) lapp your stones (make them flat) and champfer the edges (bevel),
especially the hones you use for your knifes

My suggestion if you have a shave ready razor that's just starting to need a touch up: get a barber's hone. Long as there are no nicks, dings etc. That need a higher grit, a few swipes (5-10) on one of those will have you ready to shave again as fast as, if not faster than, any other hone you can get. Once you have that, you can expand your hone collection to finer or coarser grits as needed. In retrospect, I wish I had gone that route myself. Well, you live, you learn.

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Originally Posted by dmnc

You could probably get by with a 10,000 grit naniwa superstone. What brand is your 5,000? Lots of info in the library.

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The brand is called Eden, its supposed to be a similar wetstone to naniwa, made by the same factories

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Straight Razor Place - Beginners Tips: November 2014

Category:Honing - Straight Razor Place Library

For finishing a razor you want something over 8k in grit. The 2000/ 5000 will do well for setting bevels and sharpening in that order. Then you need a finisher you can go barber, 8k, 10k or 12k or higher in synthetics. Your other options for a finisher are natural hones such as coutical, Escher, black or translucent ark and one of the many others. As to which on its a matter of preference.

Now as the other guys have said knife and razor honing are very different beast so read up one honing. It's not rocket sci but it is a learned skill that takes time.

If you read threads going back when this forum began you will see the Norton 4K/8K was the universal hone for straight maint.

Since then folks have just gone hone crazy. The Norton is still as good as it ever was and you can't go wrong with it.

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Originally Posted by Hirlau

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Straight Razor Place - Beginners Tips: November 2014

Category:Honing - Straight Razor Place Library

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THNX, forgot to look at those ^^/

I think for now Ill just go with a naniwa 10k stone, that costs money enough, for touchups and maybe in the far future get a norton 4k/8k and try my hand on actual honing.

As for the eden stones, I did some research on them (I looked at the description the seller gave again) And they said that stone has ceramic binding similar to naniwa, but because of a higher concentration of aluminiumoxide, 100% that is for eden stones, the stone sharpens faster but cuts deeper, meaning my 5k side of the eden stone gives a result of the same fineness as a 1k/2k naniwa stone.

I found for touch ups the Naniwa 12k to be better then the 10k. Use chromium oxide and strop. I just purchased a Suehiro Gokumyo 20k and that really puts a great edge on the razor in place of the chromium oxide.

According to their website, their stones are very aggressive. In expensive, aggressive stones are not the best stones for razor honing. Generally they are too small, too soft and too aggressive. And as said, you will end up replacing them with quality stones, or giving up on honing. There is a lot more to a stone for honing razors than just grit size, which is why there are only a handful that are recommended.

Rather than the 10K, the 4/8 Norton may be better for you combined with a 12k Super Stone for a finisher, as recommended. You can buy both for about the cost of the 10K, with the same performance or better and the ability to work a razor up from bevel set to shave ready.