Thread: How often should you hone?

I bought a Chinese hone stone and I wonder how often should I use it?


Should I have bought "professional" hone stones on Amazon and played with an old cheaper razor to figure out the hone / strop combo?


Any advice?


Thanks
J

Dive into the library here, and read the dickens out of it. I can tell by your questions, that you need to learn a lot more before spending more on honing gear.

After learning to shave with a straight (by learning to shave, I mean completing about 100 shaves), you will know when a razor needs to hit the stones. It simply won't perform the way it used to.

When the razor is pulling at whiskers and not slicing thru them is time for a touch up on the correct stone. A chinees stone? That dont tell us anything about the stone. It could be junk, it could be too low of a grit, it could be a stone made for tools and not razors.

Honing is something that takes a lot of time to learn and is best done with a cheap razor that you didnt buy to shave with as you will damage it learning to hone. The best thing to learn when starting out is to get a finishing stone like a 12k and do 5 to 8 laps and see if it helped the edge.

Ive been honing for a year now. Sometimes it goes good, other times i just dont get it right. Ive got a full set of profesional hones. Having quality hones are one thing. Learning to use them the right way is another story. You need to read up on honing. If your going to restore razors then buy a good set and learn the full process. If your just wanting to keep your razor going then one finish stone is all that is needed.

Starting with a razor that has been pro honed by hand is the best way about it. Then when it needs touched up, it can be done in 10 to 15 seconds and your done. Some folks dont own hones as after you have learned to shave well and strop well you can go 5 to 6 months before a razors needs honed. Then send it out and get a pro honning done and your good for another 6 months. The cost is less than the stone.

Read and learn about honing. Read about others learning to hone. Its takes time and a lot of efort to learn to do it and every razor is different on the stone so then you learn each razors needs on the stones.

I hope this is helping you some but the main thing that is repeated here is read and learn before spending the money on rocks!

What Jerry said, very sound advice Sir !!!!

Dear newbie, we’re glad you’re taking up straight razor shaving. You can get a adequate shave from modern cartridge razors. No? You want to take up the straight as a hobby? Don’t buy another thing until you’ve spent a month watching YouTube videos and then reading the library here. I could teach you to swim by just throwing you in. You may very well drown. They don’t call them cut throat razors for nothing.

I have two Chinese Guangxi hones. One of them polishes the edge similar to my Naniwa 12K. The second one of them leaves a scratch pattern more similar to an 8K Naniwa. I find the Naniwa 12K to produce a rather harsh edge, so I prefer the better Guangxi to the Naniwa for finishing. I would never try finishing on the other Guangxi, but it is a great prefinisher. I have since purchased other finishing hones that I prefer to the Guangxi hones.


Whenever my edges tug even a little bit, I first try to improve the edge by stropping, using pasted strops and clean fabric and leather. If that does not restore the edge, I then do about ten laps on my favorite finishing hone and then strop the edge. If that still does not get the edge where it needs to be, I go back to the hones, perhaps starting with a prefinisher.

My coarse, white beard is very hard on steel edges. It is unusual for me to get more than 4-5 shaves off an edge before it needs to be refreshed. Thus, I keep my finishing hone on the sink counter where I can grab it any time I need to improve the edge.

If you are young and have a fine beard, your edges will last a lot longer. Some people can go for weeks or even months between honings using nothing more than clean fabric and leather strops. For me, that ship sailed decades ago.

That's really hard to say, cause some just like to hone. I on the other hand have learned to shave right and strop. So my stiff hard to cut white beard doesn't damage my edge, I get months with just leather. So learn to shave and strop then you will find out how long. A barber used to get lots of shaves from just leather. Tc

Hone when the strop doesn't work anymore.

Using your hone to often wont hurt the shaving aspect but unnecessarily wear out the blade early.

Like everyone else has said, there are a ton of variables that will determine how long an edge goes before needing a refresh.
Once you are used to the feeling you get from shaving with a peticular razor that is properly honed...

You will know.

Pete <:-}

Originally Posted by RayClem

I have two Chinese Guangxi hones. One of them polishes the edge similar to my Naniwa 12K. The second one of them leaves a scratch pattern more similar to an 8K Naniwa. I find the Naniwa 12K to produce a rather harsh edge, so I prefer the better Guangxi to the Naniwa for finishing. I would never try finishing on the other Guangxi, but it is a great prefinisher. I have since purchased other finishing hones that I prefer to the Guangxi hones.


Whenever my edges tug even a little bit, I first try to improve the edge by stropping, using pasted strops and clean fabric and leather. If that does not restore the edge, I then do about ten laps on my favorite finishing hone and then strop the edge. If that still does not get the edge where it needs to be, I go back to the hones, perhaps starting with a prefinisher.

My coarse, white beard is very hard on steel edges. It is unusual for me to get more than 4-5 shaves off an edge before it needs to be refreshed. Thus, I keep my finishing hone on the sink counter where I can grab it any time I need to improve the edge.

If you are young and have a fine beard, your edges will last a lot longer. Some people can go for weeks or even months between honings using nothing more than clean fabric and leather strops. For me, that ship sailed decades ago.

I wholeheartedly concur with RayClem's comments quoted above. To them, I will just add the following: the Chinese Guangxi hones are alleged to be good finishers, particularly the ones with the limited orange lines running parallel; one might try ten laps as recommended on the finisher first, and if that's not enough, perhaps 10 laps more, and then 10 laps more to see if this works before moving lower; and, if needed before the finishing stone, I like to use the Solingen red and black crayon pastes on dedicated Russian leather or vegetable-tanned leather sanded to around 180x to give it some tooth on the surface. Starting out with a "shave-ready" razor, a decent finishing stone and a two-component linen and leather strop should be all you need in the short run.