Thread: Fastest progression possible

Well after talking to a guy and almost buying some 1000 razors I decided it's probably time to get a legitimate progression over my bucket of naturals. And based on how many I want to buy I'm looking for something as fast as possible. Any suggestions.

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If you are going to use your naturals which ones do you have?

Bevel setting is the most tricky part. For the rest, get a BBW/coticule-Jnat&nagura stones, or just go for one stone honing; with a good bevel, a diamond plate and a stone with decent cutting speed, you'll be fine.
For bevel setters now with pros and cons... it will be a long list.

well, you are going to need 1,000 monkeys, honing on 1,000 stones...

I have Jnats, Shapton, Norton and Naniwas plus the Escher and Ark Black thinking I got the progression tools until I watched Mastro Livi use a 3k to set the bevel, a Belgium Coticule and a Ark Trans followed up with his loom strop chromium oxide on linen and the skin on the other side. It took him 5 to 10 minutes from start to finish. I have 4 of his razors and they are ready to shave out of the box and the razors really hold their edges with minimum maintenance. I would love to go to his shop just for a lesson first hand on his stropping technique. Obviously he has been doing this for 60 years but it sure makes you wonder why in the world we collect all these stones when in the right hands you need 3. By the way, his loom strop is an amazing tool for maintaining a razor. You should see him restore a dull edge using only the loom strop.

If I am reading your question correctly


Then the answer is Naniwa or Shapton it is now simply a matter of $$$$$ as to which series you buy..

Any quality synthetic progression will work, if you know what you are doing.

It’s not so much the stone(s), as the driver. Honing razors is not baking cookies, you have to do what the razor needs.

Aggressive stones and new honers, rarely have good results.

Originally Posted by Hacker7

If you are going to use your naturals which ones do you have?

There all antique flee market buys except for 4 of them. Most are washitas which I often use to set a bevel and then I typically work up my nolvakite line. it works but 4 hours to get a razor shave ready isn't much fun.

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I,ve watched mastro livi progression yes it quik . I,ve tried Lynn's circle process on the naniwas that to me is very quik and effective . As time has gone by I,ve tried simplifying razor honing . 3 k naniwas to set the bevel and straight to water on the coticule which is more or less what livi does, I,ve watched videos of mastro livi going from 3 k to crhronium oxide now that's quik.

You asked about speed of progression, without mentioning budget or any other factors so I will answer based on that only.

It is well known the Chosera stones cut very fast, if not the fastest. I use a Chosera 1k, Chosera 3k, Snow White Original 8k (Which is really a Chosera 8k), SS12, GS20 You can't get much faster than that, depending on the sharpie test which I do when I first start I sometimes start with the Chosera 3k. The 1k through 8k is the slowest part of the progression, and gets faster as you move up. So getting fast cutting stones at those lower levels is important.