Thread: Info on Henckels hones... Whatcha think?

Olivia- Consider this. I will not have the Shapton DGLP. Would you rather have Naniwas or Shapton glasses? I remember in the original thread I had you recommended Naniwas over the Nortons, but how do you feel they compare to Shapton glass?

Well at the moment I do not have either (but a 5k 8k and 12k Shapton Pro coming in the mail)
The Shapton glass series does not attract me at all.
Can't say why though.
I can not really recommend a particular brand before testing them myself.
Just read a lot cause I'm eyeballing them for long now.
Originally I wanted Naniwas and I guess if the Shaptons are not really outstanding,
I'll put them up for sale and get me some Naniwas instead.
Just not sure whether its going to be the Super Stones or the Choseras.
You see, the problem is branching out, LOL
I do have a HAD for naturals, but those hones are only for practical needs.
(Yeah, thats what they say, LOL)

Originally Posted by 0livia

Well at the moment I do not have either (but a 5k 8k and 12k Shapton Pro coming in the mail)
The Shapton glass series does not attract me at all.
Can't say why though.
I can not really recommend a particular brand before testing them myself.
Just read a lot cause I'm eyeballing them for long now.
Originally I wanted Naniwas and I guess if the Shaptons are not really outstanding,
I'll put them up for sale and get me some Naniwas instead.
Just not sure whether its going to be the Super Stones or the Choseras.
You see, the problem is branching out, LOL
I do have a HAD for naturals, but those hones are only for practical needs.
(Yeah, thats what they say, LOL)

Olivia, I would be very interested to hear your assessment of the Pro stones for straight razors....

No problem, as soon as they are here and been tested.

Originally Posted by 0livia

Originally I wanted Naniwas and I guess if the Shaptons are not really outstanding, I'll put them up for sale and get me some Naniwas instead.
Just not sure whether its going to be the Super Stones or the Choseras.
You see, the problem is branching out, LOL I do have a HAD for naturals, but those hones are only for practical needs. (Yeah, thats what they say, LOL)

Olivia, I have the pros and they are good but there is always the 'faster gun'. I too have been torn between the super stones and the choseras. I did a google and a forum search for the chosera just yesterday.

It seems the knife guys love the chosera. The only two razor guys I found with the 10k chosera were Bart and English. I remember English praising the 10k and then putting his up for sale in the classifieds shortly thereafter.

Bart was enthusiastic about the choseras at first but I found his quote in a post on the topic.

" Yes, for my personal c0cktail of shaving technique, skin type and beard, the edge coming of my Naniwa Chosera 10K is too "sharp". This edge almost sucks itself through my whiskers. I can come to a full stop on the hardest to shave spot on top of my skin and start the stroke again, without even the need to pay attention. Unfortunately, this kind of keenness slices right through my hair papillae, leaving what I believe is often referred to as "weepers", randomly spread over my face.

If I "tone down" that edge on a Coticule with water, that resolves that situation for me. Perhaps I need to pay a very tiny bit more attention on my chin, but I get an equally close shave, with no real sting on the alum block, and I also don't get the fuzziness on my cheeks that builds up after a number of shaves with more aggressively finished razors. BUT: as I said earlier, my shaving technique has over time completely blended with the kind of edges I prefer."

So between English putting his up for sale and Bart's conclusion I find myself leaning toward the super stones. Lynn has posted that he finds the composition of the supers ideal for razors in terms of density and for lack of a better term softness of the surface.

I have spoken to Utopian on his use of the supers and he finds them to be very good for razors. With all the honing he has been doing for others lately he says that he wouldn't want to be without them.

The fact that none of these synthetics are made specifically with razors in mind is something that I consider. Maybe we (the razor community) got lucky when Naniwa came up with the formula for the supers ?

BTW, speaking of naturals, I must have HAD because your Franconian hone is such a good finisher that I ought to be satisfied with it and not be looking for the "next big thing". That is hone acquisition disorder for sure.

Make my day, Jimmy!
In several aspects, hehehe

Just came back from grocery shopping .....öööh... ääähhh ... ummmm
and the store happens to have a big pots and pans department, ummm....
and knives too... couldn't find something heartbreaking in their shoes department either..

so I brought me the Henckels hones home.
Saved 10% even.


Off to test!

That is great Olivia ! Now we will see what an objective hands on evaluation yields.

Well I'm by no means an expert and not at all for synthetic hones, but
I just tried them on a chipped and warped microtome blade.
Fullest program with big areas.

The 250 removed the warp belly on the wedge side quite brave
The 1000 smoothed it all out
The 3000 polished and cut
and so does the 8000. Mirror finish.
Edge totally straight, no microchips, no wire edge although I went back and thro.

The blade suffered quite a bit and at the end of the process I could notice the bevel changing to flatter, cause I guess I have worked the hardened parts of the spine off, so it decreased faster than in the beginning.
The last round with one layer of tape on the 8000 got me a great second edge though.
The razor is scary sharp now.
Actually you don't need anything else but the two hones.

Something I noticed when I lapped them prior to honing:
They dried my hands out like nothing else before. Phew!!!
Lapping is no problem at all with only little W/D sandpaper.
The color is not really appealing (3 shades of grey and white)
The plastic case they come in has rubber feet and its great to work with.
They only need a little water.

Thanks for being the guinea pig, Olivia! So, do you think they're similar to the Super hones?

IMO they do/are everything I heard about the super hones.

Way to make my life very hard...
So Olivia, good enough to buy safely, or still a risk?