Thread: Poor boy's stones

I enjoy reading this part of the forum. The stones you guys use are beautiful and out of my league! I am new to honing and feel like I have been doing a decent job with a King 1000/6000. However, I recently ordered a razor from whippeddog and noticed that he sells 1/4 of a stone that is available at Woodcraft. Since I wanted a whole stone and have a woodcraft nearby, I picked one up. Before use I flattened it on my Norton flattening stone and soaked it for a couple of hours. Here is my confusion. The Woodcraft stone (which is reported to be 12000) feels more coarse than my King on the 6k side. Am I confused or just wrong maybe? Can I hone razors with what I have here? If one of you guys has a minute to help out a newb, I would be grateful.

The stone from Woodcraft is on the left...

Don't know what to tell ya as I have the same stones from Woodcraft and my 12k is as smooth as glass both visually and when honing. Nice stones for the price.

The woodcraft stone is not 12k. It is a natural hone and has no grit designation. It also is too hard to be lapped with the synthetic lapping hone made by Norton, which now probably is even less flat than before you started. You will need to flatten the Norton and woodcraft either with w/d sandpaper or loose silicon carbide grit.

After you get this sorted out you should be be ready to go for your razors.

That is a natural Chinese stone. It may or may not be up to 12k, most probably not. Natural stones cannot be grit rated because they are natural, and there was no quality control when they were made, over hundreds/thousands of years and just a single grit can alter performance or render useless for razors.

You would have much better luck lapping the stone on 80 wet and dry paper working up to 1,000 grit, or loose Silicone Oxide lapping grit. Those stones are very hard and can take some time to lap, loose S/O is much faster and efficient.

You might have some luck smoothing your stone, once flat with higher grit wet & dry papers starting with 320 or 400. Burnishing those stones, like you would with a hard Ark, once smooth, with hard carbon steel chisels, large kitchen knife or cleaver will work very well to smooth the face further for razor use.

Bottom line is some of those stones work ok, some don’t, and worst case is you have a nice kitchen knife stone. Best case is yours is a finisher, it will be a slow finisher, especially off a 6k edge may take hundreds of laps to refine an edge. But some can finish and produce a shaveable edge.

In your previous post you said you had a,10k water stone that would probably produce better results, which brand of stone is it? Synthetics are much easier to learn to hone on as, at least one variable is eliminated, the known grit of the stone.

I think perhaps I may see the problem. The Woodcraft stone I have is pretty soft. The Norton flattening stone make quick work of its assigned task. I understand now why there can be such variability in natural stones. Thanks for the info guys, I will try synthetic next time. I should have just bought the Norton 6000/8000 I was looking at...
Euclid440 I did have a stone off Amazon that was labeled 10000 grit. However it seems more like 1000k so I sent it back.

One of the things with a natural hone is the finish on the lapping is everything. If you lapped it with the Norton lapping stone it will be way too coarse. You need to take it to the wet dry and smooth it down. It needs to be a minimum of 325, you could try to go to 1K but I would bet the paper plugs up way too quick. Re-lap it and you will have a different hone.

I will give that a try now. I have some 400 wet/dry.

This is why most here will tell newbies to, read, read, read, and/or ask BEFORE making purchases to help prevent costly mistakes that can cost the newbie more in the long run.

A very basic set would usually end up being a King 1000 and a Norton 4/8 K. This would usually cost a around $120.00. You can get a decent shave off the 8K. Good luck and smooth shaves to you. Ask questions.


Mike

The Nortons are fantastic stones, but you'll be doubling up with the N4K and K6K as there pretty much the same grit. And I hate wasting money! The 6K can still function well for knives.

You have already said your getting on with the 6K king, I did as well for a long time till I upgraded from it. The feedback from the stone is nice.

The choice really is yours to make. Do you want an easy 4/8 and make the 6K redundant, Or do you want to keep the 1/6 and add in something new.

Personally I'd find the choice hard to make. The 8K is very hard to beat. It's fast and sits in all progressions even if you are going over 8K into more polish. And it's guaranteed for consistency.

The advantage to the BBW is it's pretty, and cheap. It's also a spring board into coticules.

Both stones will last an equal amount of time, and both stones will give a good final edge with perhaps a nod the the BBW for been able to deliver a smoother shave. It's almost an impossible choice to make.

Yup, that is what you need, or you will be making very large grit jumps.

Not saying it can’t be done, just hard for a new honer, you have to say on each stone until you remove all the previous stria, most are too impatient for that. And make sure the bevel is fully and completely set on the 1k.

A 1/4/8k progression is a good and easy to do progression, add some razor quality Chrome Oxide and you are good for life.