Thread: King 1000 hone

I am new to honing and I have recently bought a King 1000 grit stone. I was warned it is a slow cutter when setting the bevel. I have used this stone on 5 straight razors. I have spent an hour trying to set the bevel on each razor.
The end result seems as good as my professionally honed razor but I question if I am overdoing it?

I am open to any feedback to help me improve my skills.

Thanks,

Aaron

The bevel is the key to good shaves. You didn't say what the next stone in progression is. Not to worry.
If you like the edge you get from it, it is fine. I would say that you are getting fast service unless your blades have a very tiny bevel. I had one as my first stone and I still use it occasionally.
Enjoy the trip!
~Richard

I begin with the king then progress to the norton 4000/8000, then Ch12k and finish off with paste.

My bevels are good by not great. I really rely on the Norton 4000.

It's impossible to say if you are overdoing it based on you sharing the amount of time you took. The amount of time it takes to set a bevel varies widely based on what the blade was like to start with. Then there are other factors like amount of pressure, stroke pattern/speed, how often you rise off the hone, etc.

I notice the king 1000 can work much faster with slurry. You might give it a try if you haven't already. You can set the bevel with slurry then do some passes on clean water before moving on.

IMHO, Reaching the apex of the blade edge at its centreline is a properly set bevel. If you have accomplished that to the best of the stone's ability / cutting pattern then anything beyond on that stone is overdone. Once accomplished however, your progression to a fine edge is where the pros are separated from the rest of us
Just my $.02
Mike

Yup, as said, it depends on what you were starting with.

I have a King,1k, and others, they work just fine. When it comes to 1k’s, they all work about the same, some feel different but, they all leave a 1k finish.

It is not unusual for a new honer to spend a long time setting a bevel, make sure you are using tape and check it often to protect the spine. There is no point in needlessly wearing the spine.

Like someone else mentioned it all depends on how the SR looked at the begging. If it is in a regular condition, no big chips or things like that, how long does it takes you in order to get the SR to shave arm hair? One hour approximately?

If we're talking about a 'gently used' ebay find I don't think an hour to set the bevel is really all that out of the ordinary. Especially if you're new to it. It still takes me a while because I check early and often to see what kind of progress I'm making. I try not to watch the clock and just focus on getting where I need to be.

A 1K stone by any manufacturer is only going to get the edge so good, we all rely on the next hones in our progressions to get the edge where we want it. Otherwise we'd just stop at 1K and call it good. The Norton 4K is a real work horse, I've found often times I can set the bevel OK with just that if there are no chips or dings to worry about.

If you're spending an hour just on the 1k I think you are probably overdoing it. Especially if it took that long on each of your 5 razors. Just check to see if it cuts arm/leg hair smoothly at the toe/belly/heal and then you can probably move on to the 4k and that usually wouldn't take an hour.

I have the King 1k I would generally spend about 10 minutes or so on it. I have had some razors where things didn't go that smoothly but in generally that's about how long it takes at that stage.