NANIWA 12k grit stone good start?

So here is my question and I appreciate your time. I started last year with a shavette, 8 dollar brush off amazon, good disk of shave soap and a coffee cup from my cibbard. Over the last year I have gotten efficient with the shavette, stepped up to a good brush, better soap and a shave bowl that I found at a thrift store that fits me well. I have a solinger vintage razor that is in excellent shape, previously honed and I have a strop. I have done a lot of research but unbelievably I need your advice for my last step. The razor shaves but is not fully shave read as it tugs a bit after the stripping with paste. I have sharpened many knives and I feel I can hone and strop this razor no problem. I have every thing I need accept the stone. I have saved for a good stone but I only need one for now to start with. I can build my collection later, will the naniwa 12k grit be a good choice? Your thoughts please. Taken me a while to get to this point, I want to finish strong with my last piece.

Thank you for all your advice.

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Originally Posted by Jdaniell

The razor shaves but is not fully shave read as it tugs a bit after the stripping with paste. I have sharpened many knives and I feel I can hone and strop this razor no problem. I have every thing I need accept the stone. I have saved for a good stone but I only need one for now to start with. I can build my collection later, will the naniwa 12k grit be a good choice? Your thoughts please. Taken me a while to get to this point, I want to finish strong with my last piece.

Thank you for all your advice.

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That sentence will either bring you success or failure, you are by a huge amount not the first to think so, the majority have found it to be not true but you might be one of the exceptions


That being said the Naniwa SS 12K is exactly the hone I recommend when people ask what hone they should own for Maintenance and Touch ups

Good Luck and there are tons of Vids about how to use it

There are some subtle differences between shaving with a straight and a shavette. A straight razor needs to have a lower angle or it simply does not shave well. How recently was you razor honed? The basis to every good shaving edge is in the bevel set. That is to say the formation of a perfect apex from heel to toe. It may be worth your while to get it honed. Also putting your location in can help in terms of finding local help.

12 k is a great maintenance tool but it may not be enough . Your razor maybe in need of more than a12 k naniwa. If I was you I would have your razor honed and then use your 12 k as soon as the edge drops of slightly. This way you should be good to go . Or even better still get the 3 k 8 k combo naniwa and 12k

I began honing straight razors after sharpening high end Japanese kitchen knives.

Sharpening knives will not help you hone a razor, in fact it probably hurts. The pressure is entirely different, the finishing hones are entirely different, the 'muscle memory' is entirely different....

Probably the only thing from knife sharpening that helps is that you're probably comfortable with the hones.

Cheers, Steve

well several things, first maybe the razor doesn't have a proper bevel set, next your stropping on paste may not have helped it because stropping itself is the main art form to this hobby, once you get really good at stropping stones aren't needed that often. so if your stropping is off all you did was make it worse, paste can be very aggressive and we don't know what paste you used. most crox razor quality only needs a few laps. but also its been mentioned that the straight is different from shavettes as to angle. but a 12k naniwa will keep it maintained if its had a good edge put on it first, which is where a pro honing comes in. a very talented guy can actually set a bevel on a 12k nani but that's for later after you can get consistent results from ypur maintenance Tc

You should add your city. There may be someone close that can help you with hands on honing

The Naniwa 12,000 grit is a perfect start if all you want to do is maintain your edge, but it is not suitable for setting a bevel.

You said that the the razor was perviously honed, but was the bevel still good enough when you received it? If you are not sure, and to save you the expense, I would have the razor professionally honed and use the Naniwa 12k to maintain the edge.
This way you could go for a long time without having to buy a second or third stone.

Having experience in honing knives will not help you much. The finest grit for honing knives is just about the coarsest grit for honing razors.
If you wanted to set a bevel and go through a complete progression, you would need a 1000 (possibly 3000) grit, a 5000 grit, an 8000 grit, and the 12,000 grit.

You could do with less, e.g. a single Naniwa 3000/8000 combination stone or similar, but a single combination stone will always be a compromise, not quite ideal for setting a bevel and not quite ideal for maintaining and polishing the edge.

Considering how seldom you would need to go through the full range, from setting a bevel to polishing the edge, and how much more often you would want to just touch up the edge, the Naniwa 12,000 would be my preference.


B.

I'll throw in my opinion and validation for the Naniwa 12K. I started off honing on a 12K. I think many will tell you that it is a good stone for those learning and it produces consistent, repeatable results without out overly sophisticated technique. I'm sure there are others as well, but I think you could be very happy with the Naniwa series. Glen /gssixgun (above) maxim about money on a stones and time spent learning how to use them is absolutely true. Put in the time watching videos and asking questions and practicing with the stone.

I'll pop up out of my bunker on my 1st day of Spring Break to second/third/fourth all the above affirmations that the Naniwa 12k is just about the perfect 1st hone/touch-up hone.