Thread: Cheap chinese hones, to buy or not to buy ?

Originally Posted by Humanalien

Ok, thank you very much. I have bought a cheap 60x LED microscope (yeah, chinese as well), but I didn't see much of a difference when going from one stone to another.
I will keep practicing with the razor from the first picture.
I have shearched for a mentor but not found yet..

Where are you located? If you add your location to your profile, then if any meet-ups happen near you there will be a greatly likelihood that you will be notified of it. If you are concerned about privacy, then you can just list a state, province, or whatever.

If you don't want to list your location, do you know how to do a location search of the members list?

That razor in the first photo looks like a good one to use for practicing honing. Just make sure that you use tape and change it long before it wears all the way through to the steel. As the tape wears down the angle of the bevel changes and the edge no longer makes contact with the hone.

18cm x 6cm is an adequate size. For a beginner, one of the biggest challenges is keeping the blade flat on the hone along the length of the blade. Narrower hones make that a lot more difficult for beginners but your 6cm width is good enough.

In July i bought a set of TAIDEAs from 1K to 8K for 3,99 € each stone, just for the giggles. Plus a TAIDEA diamond plate 320/600 for 3,99 €. I tested them once and for that price it is a good deal. My Naniwa combination stones are easier to maintain, much better at each grit level and it is easy to achive fairly good results as a beginner. On the other hand, if you succeed and truly get a decent shaving razor from your stones you will most likely have the necessary skills to have a set of Naniwas and just blow your mind with the improvement.

I would not recomment to buy these chinese stones for the high price on AliExpress, once or twice a year you can get sellout prices on Ebay. Or you try and search AliExpress for "just 1 piece" bargains.

I'm guessing that you should be able to get your razors shaving with those hones. You're just rubbing off a little metal after all.

Work on your technique and you should be good to go. If you aren't too rough in your technique you don't "need" tape. I've never used any.

I agree that you might as well leave off the paste until you are getting a shaveable edge just to make things simple.

If you are just learning to shave with a straight that's another complication so make sure lack of sharpness isn't just your shaving technique as well. More than likely though you just aren't staying on the 1K long enough to completely set the bevel. That last comment is the answer to almost every honing problem.

While you're learning, try using a sharpie or some other felt tipped marker to color the bevel before putting it on the stones to see where you're actually making contact. It might surprise you

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Are you using tape?

Yes, but I'll have to buy another sort of tape, my hones have the color of the tape after about 5minutes..

Originally Posted by Humanalien

Yes, but I'll have to buy another sort of tape, my hones have the color of the tape after about 5minutes..

Hmmmmm

Depending on the tape ????

That also could also mean you are applying the pressure to the Spine rather then "Torquing" toward the edge..

Take a close look at the wear on the tape,,,

This is one of the main reason you saw several of the experienced guys recommending using tape to learn with
Tape is cheap and easy to replace, steel costs


ps: start with only one of those razors, I would suggest the pretty Solingen,or the Hamburg Ring from the pics and from experience those look to be the easiest to hone that you have there...

Ok, i have tried them all already :P They are now shaving, but far from decent...
The Solingen Halfman I like a lot and is the best at this time, I had a very good shave on the way down, but a rather "irritating" shave on the way up.
I'm going to put them all away again accept the Hamburg-ring and going to start over.

So if my tape is grinding of I'm propably using to much pressure instead of "torqueing" the razor?

Originally Posted by gcbryan

I'm guessing that you should be able to get your razors shaving with those hones. You're just rubbing off a little metal after all.

Work on your technique and you should be good to go. If you aren't too rough in your technique you don't "need" tape. I've never used any.

I agree that you might as well leave off the paste until you are getting a shaveable edge just to make things simple.

If you are just learning to shave with a straight that's another complication so make sure lack of sharpness isn't just your shaving technique as well. More than likely though you just aren't staying on the 1K long enough to completely set the bevel. That last comment is the answer to almost every honing problem.

The shaving technique shouldn't be a problem since i'm shaving with my new Dovo for almost 5yrs now. But now I want to try restore other razors to then shave with.
Just out of interest..

I'm going to restart all over now and be a little more patient on the 1k ik think.

Originally Posted by Humanalien

I'm going to put them all away again accept the Hamburg-ring and going to start over.

So if my tape is grinding of I'm propably using to much pressure instead of "torqueing" the razor?

Good idea

I want to say "Yes" but I do not know the hones nor the tape you are using, so I have to guess

You have to take a close look to know

In general when people are learning to hone they tend to have "Heavy hands" they also don't hold the tangs correctly while honing to "Torque" the razor toward the edge while honing, this leads to all the pressure being applied to the spine,,, and the edge not being evenly and equally pushed across the hone..

Watching the water, will solve all these issues, that ripple of water as you hone should move evenly and equally from the heel to the toe as you push in an X down the hone..
If you lose that little wave of water under the hone, you are no longer honing the edge (bad) by just applying enough torque and pressure to "Ride the Wave" you eliminate all guess work about honing..
The pressure and torque have to adjust to each razor to accomplish that, doing it evenly and equally on both sides of the bevel will result in a shaving edge..
As the edge gets sharper that wave automatically adjusts for lighter pressure because it will start "Undercutting" the water, just keep relaxing the pressure and torque until the wave slips under the edge then you know you went to far...

Honing really is that simple, the difficulty comes from learning the "Gymnastics" required to do the same with problem razors

Look at the tape, if it is wearing out, then you are probably using too much pressure on the spine, watch the ripple of water and adjust

I have just flattened the stones and tomorrow I'm going to start over knowing all this, the spine torque thing was a fault I was making, no doubt there.
Wish me luck! Thanks for al the advice ! !

I'm now going to sleep ( 23pm here in Belgium and alarm @ 5am ;-))