Thread: Honing my own razors

I am thinking of learning to hone my own razors rather than sending them out. Can anybody tell me what sort of outlay of money I’m looking at to get started? Is it a reasonably easy skill to acquire?

It is an aquired skill for sure.

You can find cheaper hones for sure but I would plan on $300 USD for hones minimum and destroying at least 3 razors.

To get good it will be more.

Maybe I’ll just keep sending them out. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Elnones

I am thinking of learning to hone my own razors rather than sending them out. Can anybody tell me what sort of outlay of money I’m looking at to get started? Is it a reasonably easy skill to acquire?

You do not need to lay that much out from the get go, espcially if you have razors that were previously honed.
If you pick up a 12k and work your way back as you learn. An 8k next - from 8-12 is easily done.
Unless you need to redo edges you won't need a 1 or 3k for a bit.
Its a learned skill for sure but worth the journey. I would suggest some form of magnification as well - a quality loupe will pay dividends for learning.
Learning with synthetics is much easier and consistant.
If you enjoy it you can branch out to natural stones from there.

So you are saying to start you won't need a complete set of hones.
OK but eventually you will, so the cost is still there.
New anyway. But if you buy used you need you need some silicon carbide to flatten them or something else......
It all costs money and $300 for a good sharpening kit in my mind is reasonable.
Then while you learn you are going to mess up a couple at least. Not trying to be negative but it is a learning curve.
Then you might fall down the rabbit hole. I have one surgical black that has a slight defect in one corner that doesn't effect sharpening that cost me $300.

There is a used collection of hones for sale here for $400 at the moment that may be a good set to start with.

I have no conection with the seller!

Originally Posted by 32t

So you are saying to start you won't need a complete set of hones.
OK but eventually you will, so the cost is still there.
New anyway. But if you buy used you need you need some silicon carbide to flatten them or something else......
It all costs money and $300 for a good sharpening kit in my mind is reasonable.
Then while you learn you are going to mess up a couple at least. Not trying to be negative but it is a learning curve.
Then you might fall down the rabbit hole. I have one surgical black that has a slight defect in one corner that doesn't effect sharpening that cost me $300.

Oh no doubt the cost will be there eventually. Some naturals are ridiculous!! Hell, so is a synthetic Gokumyo
Need vs want here. He just doesn't want to send them out anymore so touch up/ freshen up is what he is asking I believe.
I'm not really a fan of the touchup maintenance thing as better results come from going back a little.

Instead of spending money on stones, I started with lapping film. It is cheap and you can be sure of the grit sizes. Lapping film is not going to set you back a ton of money and will do as good or better than anything. I'm sure @rbscebu will chime in on this topic.

Originally Posted by 32t

It is an aquired skill for sure.

You can find cheaper hones for sure but I would plan on $300 USD for hones minimum and destroying at least 3 razors.

To get good it will be more.

You've probably underestimated cost on hones. I've probably racked up over US $1000 one hones, another a few hundreds on strops, pastes, sprays etc. It's a trial and error process no one really knows whether it's going to work out or not before purchasing. After finally got to the bottom of the rabbit hole, the hones I like worth around $500 and it turned out I don't really need those paste or sprays at all. As everyone is doing things in different ways, whatever works really well for me might not work at all for a second person, in short, YMMV.

Originally Posted by Elnones

I am thinking of learning to hone my own razors rather than sending them out. Can anybody tell me what sort of outlay of money I’m looking at to get started? Is it a reasonably easy skill to acquire?

It depends. If you are fairly good at sharpening knives, you probably can pick up razor honing in no time. If you have no idea, then you probably should stay way from it. It's a costly rabbit hole.

Originally Posted by stoneandstrop

Oh no doubt the cost will be there eventually. Some naturals are ridiculous!! Hell, so is a synthetic Gokumyo
Need vs want here. He just doesn't want to send them out anymore so touch up/ freshen up is what he is asking I believe.
I'm not really a fan of the touchup maintenance thing as better results come from going back a little.

If you have someone you can trust, it's actually not that bad to send out.