Thread: What is Your Current Honing Set-up?

Bevel set with 1k Chosera
Butterscotch Washita
Light blue Thurigan. ( slurry- water )
Blue/green Thurigan. (Slurry-water )

Seems to work wonders with any steel.

But as I've said before....honing doesn't end on the stone, it stops on the strop. To me its the most important, to a set bevel. The strop can make or brake an edge.

Glass 1, 2, 4, 10, then Gok20. I still like to go to .5 and .25 diamond strops before leather. Seens to work for me most the time. But if it doesnt I will get the Naniwa stones out.

By current do you mean today? It may be different tomorrow. I guess it is important to disclaim that I am not a professional and consequently I have the luxury (or ignorance, however you want to look at it) to hone on any old rock I stub my toe on. Hell, on a lark I even decided to see if one actually could hone on a brick; true story.
To me honing is cathartic and sort of meditative but I am also not trying to make a deadline or concerned about time efficiency. Sort of like primitive camping there is value in being able to do it for the eventuality that you may need those skills one day but it is certainly not the smoothest way. That is why I like to play around with natural progressions and picking rocks out of planters and seeing if they make a good finisher.

However, when time is a factor I will use some combination of 600DMT (for bevel correction and to shorten the time on 1k for really dull edges) Norton 1k, 4k, 8k or King 1k, 6k, Sharptton 12k then thuri or black/trans Ark finish most of the time.

Originally Posted by DZEC

I’m not very scientific about it, but the Sheffield steels seem to really like the coticules.

Totally agree, that combo makes for a very comfortable shave...

I have a feeling that peoples answers to this quest is directly related to what edge they prefer.

During the week I shave with a double edge with Feather and Astra green blades. When I travel, I shave with a shavette using Feather blades.

With this being said, many will understand why my combination is 1,2,4,8,16k Shapton Glass (the 1 & 2k is seldom used), followed by a light slurried y/g thuringian.

I had the 30k, but realized that it was no good for me. I sent it to several people who agreed with my findings. Glen was the one who discovered that maybe 1% of the razors out there could handle
such a fine edge before crumbling.

My ‘bread and butter’ sequence is actually two sequences, which I choose depending on the condition of the edge. These sequences do not include coarse hones for corrective honing. Shapton Glass Stones are designed to go in 3x steps, and the HR series can go in 4x steps because they’re incredibly fast, at least on conventional carbon steel. The Shapton Glass 2k HR is my normal bevel setter for ‘new to me’ razors.

Shapton Glass 2k HR -> Shapton Glass 6k HC -> JNat
Shapton Glass 4k HR -> Shapton Glass 8k HC -> JNat

I have a few other finishers like a Gok 20k and a complete set of Shapton G7 including the 0.85u (~17k) and the 0.44u (~34k) and both the G7s work pretty well. I do not have the Shapton Glass HR 16k or 30k, but most razors that I’ve tried on the high grit G7 take the edge, though my experience with them is limited (but increasing).

So, my approach is probably totally different than anybody else's. However, it works on my face and produces what I call an exceptional edge and a very good edge. Here's how I define each:

Exceptional
The razor will get this rating when on the first pass (with the grain), it shaves all the hair from your face without leaving a lot of stubble. It must be smooth with hardly any pressure. On the second pass (against the grain), it must get every bit of stubble left on your face and delivers a baby butt smooth surface on your entire face. This is the shave that you are looking for on every razor. However, not every razor is capable of this rating. This is the best of the best!

Very Good
The razor will get this rating when on the first pass (with the grain), it shaves most the hair from your face but may leave a little stubble. It must be smooth with hardly any pressure. On the second pass (against the grain), it will generally get most of stubble left on your face and delivers a baby butt smooth surface on your entire face, but may just not as smooth or close as an exceptional shave. There will be a lot of Razors that fit into this category and they are good razors. Not every razor can be exceptional! This is a totally acceptable razor and shave! You may just need to touch up the razor some on your finishing stones, followed by stropping on canvas and leather to bring it to an exceptional rating.

My process:

Set the bevel
Here I use 1000grit wet / dry sandpaper on plate glass. Then move to 2000grit until edge is very crisp.

Honing
1. Start with marble plate using CrOx and a mixture of mineral oil and honing oil on the first go around. One layer of tape on the spine.
2. Utilize a marble plate with 1.0 diamond paste and a mixture of mineral oil and honing oil. One layer of tape on the spine.
3. Utilize a marble plate with 0.5 diamond paste and a mixture of mineral oil and honing oil. One layer of tape on the spine.
4. Utilize a marble plate with 0.25 diamond paste and a mixture of mineral oil and honing oil. One layer of tape on the spine.
This process for me produces a very keen edge.

Polishing
1. Use a Hall's Pro edge Surgical Black stone and a mixture of mineral oil and honing oil. One layer of tape on the spine. 1st stage of the polishing process for me.

2. Move to a 10K Norton water stone and a mixture of mineral oil and honing oil. One layer of tape on the spine. Green stone in picture.

3. Move to a piece of slate that I pulled out of the Potomac River and a mixture of mineral oil and honing oil. One layer of tape on the spine. The Blue Gray stone Left side of picture above.
4. Finish the polishing process with a marble plate coated with 3M .03 micron film. This produces the exceptional edge that I look for.


And finally, it's off to the stropping process. Here I use A Lucky Strike horse hide strop with linen. On one side of the linen, I have CrOx and the other side is clean. This produces a butter smooth edge that delivers a BBS 2 pass shave .

That's my process! Work's for me and that's all I care about!

Shapton Kuromaku 1-2-5-12
Sometimes instead of 12 I use a JNat or a Thuringian

I'm still using the same stuff I started out with. Norton 1-4-8, 6x2 coticule and ChromOx pasted balsa. I used to hone for one online retailer and one brick and mortar place. I've had my eye on other rocks but I'm happy with my edges and still figure I'm the weakest link in my set up.

The natural progression I prefer when time permits (takes about an hour-hour and a half)

Bevel set:
Washita: roughed on one side with 180 SIC, burnished on the other with 600 W/D

Mid range:
Hard ark: burnished on 1k W/D. Mine is block mounted and is an heirloom so I leave it that way.

Finish:
Trans or black: roughed on one side with 400 SIC, burnished on the other with 2k W/D

I may vary the grits of the powder and W/D. This is just the most recent I recorded which works quite well. As Arks are slow it involves a lot of laps; 1000-2000 or more depending mainly on if I've shortened the bevel set with a DMT or low grit synth.

It starts with half X laps, down and back in sets of 10 on alternating sides on the roughed side of the stone for 10 to 15 sets maybe 20 to 30 if needed then decreasing to sets of 5 then 3 then 1 for 10 to 15 sets each. Then switch to traditional Xs for maybe 50. Honestly I usually don't do a very accurate count but stop when the edge looks good for that part of the process. Repeat this on the burnished side.

Starting out I use moderate pressure but working toward the end of the progression lightening the pressure also using lighter pressure up the sides/stones until the final side which is weight of the blade only.

In between sides strop on canvas and CrOx pasted cloth or cardboard.

Lubricant varies but currently I have been using Smith's Solution diluting out to plain water as I go.

As I say, it is not quick but it is a good escape and as I palm hold the stones the down and back half Xs go fairly quickly; there are just a lot of them. I like it as I lose myself in my thoughts in the process.

Ending of course with a thorough stropping which starts with flax linen, then cotton canvas, suede side cow hide, smooth side boar hide.
This produces an edge that gives an acceptable one pass shave and BBS 2 pass.