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

Mine are only in the 'back drawer' because I can't seem to stop acquiring more hones to play with. Such is the difficult life of a rock hound.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

At best, they are 6-8k equivalent.

Put the money ($50 with shipping) towards a Naniwa 12K Super Stone.

You will be glad you did. Bet the vast majority, of them are sitting in the back of drawers. Mine are…

Not many 12k Naniwa’s gathering dust…

I don't see many for sale at reduced prices however (Welsh Tri-hone that is). You would think that since so many people should be unhappy with them that there would be a lot for sale in the secondary market. I don't see any however.

I don't need a $100 12k. That's too practical anyway. I already get good edges.

For the price (especially were it not for the high shipping) the tri-hone looks like fun. I've heard the 3rd one is actually around 15k but rather harsh and the the middle one is close to 12k.

It's the Dragon's Tongue that is in the 6k-8k range (with or without slurry).

Did you get the tri-hone set or just one of the individual stones?

I already have the Chinese stone. Are you saying that none of the Welsh stones are finer than that? Really?

Originally Posted by Marshal

hein31 - since you have Naniwa hones to compare them to, what grit rating would you say the Taidea hones are equivalent to? Almost sounds like the 3K behaves like a 1K, 5 like a 3K, and 8 like a 5K.

Pressure & torque are certainly key. You want to make sure all stria from previous tiers of honing are gone, and that pressure used is as light as you can get by the time you're doing your finishing strokes.

Sorry for the delay, i'm currently watching 33C3 videos...

The 3K is more like a 2K, the 5K is somewhere under 4K (but not lower than 3,5K'ish ) and the 8 K is above 6K but not nearly a 7K. Well, the stones don't slurry, you can use them for various other knives and the option to use it with oil and higher grit results is still on the table. Tomorrow i will try it soaked with water and used with my "oil, dish detergent and water mix" on top of it (Parts:1-1-4). Most likely the grid rating was meant for use with oil, which makes a completly different topic.

I paid 5,99 € for the 1K/3K combination stone, 3,99 € for the 5K and the same for the 8K stone, shipping included. For that price it's worth the money, if you don't want to hone on it you take a hacksaw and make naguras...

I started my honing adventures with various german and chinese hones AND a 15K welsh slate (the small stone type, sorry currently it's not available). The welsh slate was used from the second honing session on and to this very day it spoiled me completely, so no synthetic finish for me except for testing purposes!

Dragon's Tongue water only - just below 8k. With shave soap, I'd put it on the same tier as my Norton 8K.

The purple slate ranks with my Chinese 12K - this one has a little 'bite' to it. But it mellows out after a good stropping. Kind of feels like a synthetic edge.

The black slate (15K) is finer still than the purple slate, and I would not call the edge it leaves harsh. Unless you need a bit more practice keeping a proper angle. If you screw up, it'll let you know and quick.

I really do like the Welsh slates.

Originally Posted by gcbryan

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Did you get the tri-hone set or just one of the individual stones?

I already have the Chinese stone. Are you saying that none of the Welsh stones are finer than that? Really?

I can only say that the 15K slate (i use it with oil) produces a slightly better result, it's more about characteristics than it is about funtionality. My chinese hone makes the razor smooth like butter, but the sharpness is not as high as the welsh slate. For somes razors depending on size i prefer the chinese PHIG as finisher, for others it's the welsh slate. My Müller "Thüringer MST" (that definitely never saw Thüringen) is not as good, not as smooth and not as sharp as both of the above. I have a 12K Shapton Pro and i prefer anything natural, mostly because it definitely produces as harsher and irritating sharpness. But with a reduced amount of stokes you can tame it. And i have a chinese 12K resin bonded diamond stone that produced a super sharp edge (interestingly enough not as irritating as the Shapton), but i don't like the lack of comfort...

The 8 k Taidea are very good to use with slurry - practicly feels , like coticule slurry .The 3 K are a 1 K stone
And above all - for God sake , please dont buy Chinese strops - better buy a SRP replasement padle and make a padle - you will be very happy , not to have a chinese strop

Originally Posted by RusenBG

The 8 k Taidea are very good to use with slurry - practicly feels , like coticule slurry .The 3 K are a 1 K stone
And above all - for God sake , please dont buy Chinese strops - better buy a SRP replasement padle and make a padle - you will be very happy , not to have a chinese strop

I fully agree to your recommendation about the strops. Chinese strops are good for one thing only - to learn how to strop and not damaging a good strop while your at it. I found the chinese strop to be very unreliable concerning the reactivated sharpness. The leather side might be somewhere in the middle between a better strops rough side and the fine one. And if you get a treated leather side (chinese manufacturers obviously don't agree to the recommendation of natural, untreated leather) then it might be a lot of things, but never good. On the other side, i found they improve a totally bad edge to a point, where it might be shaveable. And to be honest, i didn't ever try to do such a thing on a good strop, simply because stropping is never a replacement for good honing.

The slurry thing is right, you get a usefull workable edge without any burr. But still, it is far away for my personal preferences for smoothness and the effortless clean shaving experience. Oh, and if you use it soaked with water and a oil, dish soap and water mix without slurry, that increases the edge noticeably. So there is still room for improvement on the 8K.

Off the wall thought for the cheap strops...whatever they did to treat it is going to be more or less surface only. Maybe try hitting it with a bit of hot water to soften it up, work it by hand, then try some 600 grit paper to get rid of whatever treatment they used on the surface. Let it dry for a few days, give it a slick coat of oil, and see if that doesn't do you better. There might be good leather underneath that finish.

My Illinois strop was at the very least dyed/stained brown. I'll probably never get all that out, but working it over with sandpaper did work away the burnish and give me a better surface to work with. You might be able to make some improvement.