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I have been doing this for quite some time and have not been looking at hones. A friend wants to start honing and wants his first stone to be a natural finishing hone. Please let me know where to look or if it is appropriate, what you have to offer. Please limit responses to Natural stones. Thank you.
Vintage? Coticule? Jnat? Something else? How much does he want to spend?
He wants to ultimately pair a coticule with a natural finisher. I am not sure of his budget but think he is interested in Thuringians or Jnats. Thuringians may be too expensive. Even though he didn't give me a budget Eschers seem pretty high these days.
I would go coticule and then a finishing arkansas stone (translucent or hard black)
Jnat can be a fun route but expensive for the good ones
All except the Arkansas are pretty expensive. I have a hard black Arkansas. The company says its actually finer than the translucent. It seems so much coarser than my Escher. Have you used one as a finisher? Is the edge nice? I've never tried it.
I have a translucent I finish on with some norton sharpening oil. Gives me a very nice edge and personally I find it easier to finish on arkansas stones. Have your friend try out a straight razor with an arkansas stone finish before he buys one
You're saying jnat because thuris are expensive? I'm no expert but from what I have seen jnats are high as you can get. At least the ones I see are high as a cat's back.
I have several Arkansas finishes, all from Dan's Whetstones. The edge from my True Hard, Translucent, and Black are excellent. My Blue Black seems to be a sharper edge but they are hard to find.
The edges from my Arks and my jnates are similar. My Thuringen produces a nice edge but not sharp enough for me.
I feel finishing ho.nes are way overrated. It really is the final touch, which in my view is more for adding comfort than keenness. Keenness is determined by how thin you get the edge up to your finisher, after that it's just about nuance.
In my view a coticule on water only is an ideal finisher, as they tend to be on the slow side, make it hard to mess up a well established edge and add a great deal of shaving comfort. I'm in the minority on this forum on that, but that is how it is for me.
The thing is, you can add similar comfort with chromchromium oxide, Thüringer hones, many Japanese naturals, probably hard Arkansas hones (never used one) or a €250 Suehiro Gokumyo 20.000, among others.
Finishing is really about the last 1%; if you're not up to 99% before that, whatever you finish on is quite inconsequential.
So tell your friend to go with his gut and budget; if he already has a coticule, tell him to focus on getting it as keen as he wants and try the coticule as a finisher after that. If he wants to push his edge further after that, tell him to rub some talcum powder into the coticule surface (dry or wet, either way works) and do some 30-50 careful finishing strokes, test, and repeat if necessary.
Regards,
Pieter
If you google thuringian bouts There is a guy that’s sell bouts I just brought one for 45 euros light green and I used it after 8 k as finisher and it’s great 👍 as good if not better than any Escher I had and I had 5 over the years . They really are good quality that he sells
buhlmannshop@gmx.de This is his email
Gary
Griffith's Shaving Goods also carries thuri bouts, although they're quite a bit more than 45 Euros. Either way, far cheaper than any branded Escher. The Greek Vermio stones they carry are also excellent hones for the money. For example, here is a full-sized Vermio for $89: http://https://www.griffithshavinggo...nt=12749415620. Matt says they finish even finer than thuris. I had the smaller one myself and got some great edges off it before selling it to a former Scout I've managed to brainwash into our cult.
You can also find thuris on Etsy some times. I just got a yellow-green one this week from one of our members, and early testing seems promising. Let us know what he ends up with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gary haywood
Yes that’s our good friend Peter (Hatzicho’s) website.
My favorite natural finishing stones are: Greek Vermio, Zulu Grey, and Imperia La Roccia.
I got my Vermio from Griffith Shaving Goods, but they have been sold out for a long time. I do not know when or even if he can still get them from Greece.
I purchased my Zulu Grey directly from the vendor in South Africa. It seems like the owner has been missing in action for a while. Many people who placed orders never received them. No one seems to know what is going on.
I love my Imperia La Roccia (ILR), but it is a very controversial stone as the vendor will not reveal where they are mined. As with all natural stones, they vary in quality. If you get a good one like I did, they will produce a fantastic edge without a huge learning curve like you can have with Coticules and Japanese naturals. However, some people have tried them and do not like them.
For someone new to honing, a synthetic finishing stone may be a better option as they are consistent. Thus, others can share their experience with the hone.
Hi ! I used black translucent Arkansas in my experiments. I brought one side up to 0.5 microns. Did the transition to it from 3K naniva. And I will say that this is a great tool for soft razors.Quote:
Originally Posted by dcaven
Ask 10 honemeisters and you get 10 different answers. If you want to refine a coticule edge you can also use a pasted strop. Not a hone but a cheap option.
Purple Welsh slate used with sewing machine oil after a coticule used with water, no slurry, has always delivered the goods for me.
I'd recommend an 8x2" or 8x3" black Arkansas stone from Dan's Whetstone, alternatively you could pick up a Charnley Forest stone at a reasonable price. Both deliver similar edges which are keen and friendly to the skin. Coticule are hit and miss in ease of use IME. The two stones I recommended are pretty bullet proof but a bit slow.
I love my Charnley Forest stones - though if you're not in the UK the shipping can be a bit pricey.Quote:
Originally Posted by s0litarys0ldier
I'm going to mirrow a few people here and say coticule. Firstly, if it's already on his radar then at some point curiosity will get the better of him and he will buy one so might as well jump to it. I'm with Pieter in that I exclusively us a coticule as a finisher and absolutely love it.
I think Bronotsaurus makes a great suggestion too with the Purple Welsh slate. It can also be controversial but compared to all the others it's a really reasonable price and not at all a bad way to get one's feet whet.