Thread: Looking for the perfect hone setup.

Originally Posted by Hank Williams

More great information as usual guys, yet I still have a few more questions. I know Shapton has the 2K, 3K, and 6K in its lineup, but how much utility would these stones have to me? What stones do most of you guys use when you go the Shapton glass stone route? I was thinking of buying the 1K, 4K, 8K, and 16K. Would this be an appropriate progression for razors?

-Hank

I don't do restoration work- so for me the 3K is as coarse as I need. The Shapton glass hones are AGGRESSIVE and will set the bevel of the hardest razor VERY easily.And if you don't FIRST establish a bevel-you are just wasting your time and wearing out the razor.

For the majority of my honing, I use the 8K and 16K most frequently. The 6K is very useful to remove small edge defects.

I also own the Norton 4/8K combo stone and the 12K Norton. All the available hones serve a purpose-its just my opinion that the Shapton glass really allow a novice to get good results in a reasonable time. They don't hone the razor for you-but they certaintly have eliminated alot of headaches. (and sore hands).

Originally Posted by Hank Williams

More great information as usual guys, yet I still have a few more questions. I know Shapton has the 2K, 3K, and 6K in its lineup, but how much utility would these stones have to me? What stones do most of you guys use when you go the Shapton glass stone route? I was thinking of buying the 1K, 4K, 8K, and 16K. Would this be an appropriate progression for razors?

-Hank

That's a nice selection of grits but please consider putting aside some $$ for a flattening hone, either a DMT D8C or perhaps if your wallet is deep, the Shapton Diamond Glass Lapping Plate. I use the DMT but others claim the DGLP works better. I have the 2k, 4k, 8k and 16k. I plan to maybe add the 1k and 500 some day though I do have a 1.2k DMT that serves quite well as a substitute. As has been mentioned before, doubling the grit is the conventional wisdom in selecting a series of hones such as 2, 4, 8, 16 or 1, 3, 6, 12 etc. Using half steps would work but you'll spend more time swapping stones around than actually honing. Once you establish a bevel, you move to the next finer grit and refine the scratch pattern until the coarser scratches are gone, then move to the next finer hone and do it again. With Shaptons, once the bevel is fully formed, the progression upwards to refine the scratch pattern is very quick so you'd actually be wasting time using a closer spaced set of grits.

As for the Pro vs Glass hones, the Pros are older technology... there have been reports that as they thin, they become fragile and can break. The Glass hones allow you to use every last bit of abrasive without the breaking issue and apparently are more wear resistant than the Pros. The glass hones have another advantage not thought of too much and that is the lighter weight for shipping purposes if you need to have them mailed. On the other hand, if using the glass hones on the bench, you'll probably want a holder to raise them up a bit. A shapton holder is quite pricey, generic waterstone holders work very well and cost a fraction of what the shapton holder does. Personally, I handhold all my hones, even the big 8"x3" coticule I have so it's not an issue for me. Pro or glass, you pays your money and you takes your choice... I think either will be just as good and if you keep the breakage issue in mind, you should get more mileage out of the Pros but you're gonna have to hone a whole herd of razors to wear them out!!!

Regards

Kaptain "My two cents worth, and I wouldn't pay a penny more!" Zero

Hank, the usual progression is to roughly half the grit size as you move to the next stone -- so the usual progression is 1-2-4-8, etc.

So two reflections on your post: 1. I don't think you need the 3k; 2. I do think you need some sort of lapping stone to keep your stones flat. Shapton offers its own top-of-the-line model, which is quite expensive (I use a DMT 120, which works fine).

Regarding resetting a bevel on a beat-up razor: I have worked about a half-dozen back into shaving order, (which, again, does not make me a honemeister), but only on one occasion (to work out a chip) did I go down to a 500; everything else started with 1k or higher. I should also note, and forgive me if you know this already, but you can do anything with a 1k that you can with a 500 (and so on) -- it just takes twice as long.

Best of luck with whatever you choose -- basically, they're all good!

cass

Originally Posted by cassady

(...) but you can do anything with a 1k that you can with a 500 (and so on) -- it just takes twice as long.

Being in a nitpicking mood today, I'd like to point out a small flaw in your otherwise sound advice: mathematically, it takes 4 times as long. A 10 micron abrasive particle makes a scratch with a diameter of 100 square microns. A 5 micron abrasive particle makes a scratch with a diameter of 25 square microns. Hence, it takes 4 times as long to remove the same volume of steel. It would even take 16 times as long with a particle size of 2.5 microns, and over 100 times at 1 micron.
One of the big reasons newbies often do 100's of laps on a finishing hone, and get zero result.

Slightly of topic, but I felt well worth mentioning.

still great advice, Cassady.

Best regards,
Bart.

I stand corrected!

I should have appended the advice that I give to my students: always check (and question) my math.

cheers,

cass.