Thread: Stone make up, what is best for razors

On another forum there is ALOT going on about different stone "recipes", what they are made of. You hear them now and again here... Muddy, baked ceramic, and resin based. Now this is basically a synthetic stone topic and may bleed over to the naturals slightly so just keep in mine, synthetics for now.

I have tried the resin based (Shapton Pro) and have a few baked ceramic (Shapton glass) and a few mud stones. I have a synthetic Aoto coming and have been able to see that it is a very muddy stone, giving off lots of slurry, to test how this may affect my sharpening style, we all have a different style.

I was interested to hear your takes on these different mediums vs edges. I know how most work on kitchen knives but not razors. I pretty much keep to my small stones for razors as they work best for me. So my large stones are just in the kitchen.

With all the talk about cutting stones down I think some great opportunities for testing these substraits

I think this is a very difficult question because you will find die hard fans for every conceivable type of honing medium that exists. Personally I prefer natural stones but I also have some man-made ones too. Different stones work better with different razors. The more razors you acquire the more hones you will acquire.

I find this to be a very interesting topic and I look forward to reading others conclusions. Right now I am still in the process of getting to really know the Shapton pros, the Naniwa SuperStones and the Norton 1k, 4k, and 8k. I think it takes awhile to do that. Lynn talks about honing a hundred or so razors on a series of hones to get an idea of what they are about.

I'm not discouraged by that, I just keep on honing razors and learning a little something on most of them. I feel it is a matter of paying the dues to get to the level of expertise I'm shooting for. As far as the fore mentioned hones, so far I like these three brands equally well as far as results go. I like naturals too but that is another topic I guess.

I've got both and get equivalent edges from the shapton 30k and maruka nakayama asagi. I don't think the type of hone really matters from a functional perspective, it's just a matter of personal preferences. There's no good reason for me to keep using my translucents - I've got the full set of shaptons that get the job done faster. But I just like using the translucents.

The more I read and work on my own blades, I see a pattern of harder and harder stones the higher the grit/micron lvl goes. One thing I see with high hardness and fast cutters is the thendancy to accedently rub off the edge by a single sloppy pass. A softer stone that cuts slower, one takes forever, but doesn't tend to ruin the edge on one bad passs.

So this topic runs through my head when I think on it to long and gives me a headache

Lately the Shapton GS have been my starter stones for getting the bevel set, than I move to the softer Oohira J-hone to start the polishing. I've noticed if I miss judge a pass on the S GS, the edge is gone and I have to start the bevel all over, but the same oops on the Oohira is fixable and polishes out just fine. These are the kinds of things that get me going on some hones makeup

Generally the softer stones are faster and more aggressive because they release fresh abrasive more easily. But you're right about the fast hones requiring greater care to avoid deleting the edge. I vacillate back and forth between the fast and slow hones, but I'm not convinced that either type really has an advantage. The slow hones require so many laps that it's easy to get tired and mess up a few strokes. The fast hones require perfect strokes it is true, but they don't require very many of them so a short burst of concentrated effort will do the trick - and if you do mess up they can fix the edge again very quickly. But with the fast hones, if you find yourself getting tired then put them down and go do something else for awhile.