Thread: Saving for some hones - thoughts/suggestions/advice?

Not available internationally (see my earlier post).

All you need is a yellow Belgian Coticule w/slurry stone, Balsa Wood, CrOx and a suitable piece of leather as a strop for Bart's "UNICOT" honing method which you will find at Welcome to Coticule.be - Coticule.be
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Check out the SRP hone database at http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi..._Hone_Database

JERRY
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Originally Posted by mosley59

ETA: What are King Brand hones like? They have a very reasonably priced 1K at Woodcraft that I may add to the list if it's agreed it's not rubbish, since combined shipping to New Zealand is definitely the way to go if I can help it.

I have the 800/4k King stone and I do not like it at all. I only use it for restorations when a lot of metal needs to be removed, but I hate its feedback and it stains black scales too. I am replacing it with an Aoto natural hone which will likely be slower but should be more joy to use.

Originally Posted by mrsell63

All you need is a yellow Belgian Coticule w/slurry stone, Balsa Wood, CrOx and a suitable piece of leather as a strop for Bart's "UNICOT" honing method which you will find at Welcome to Coticule.be - Coticule.be
______________________________
Check out the SRP hone database at Category:SRP Hone Database - Straight Razor Place Wiki

JERRY
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I agree. I just got a new coti/bbw with combo slurry (as seen in avatar) in which I will use for all of my honing. When used properly, a coticule can do a LOT of work for you. A very versatile stone and a good finisher/touch-up hone in my opinion.

But there is definitely a lot of other options. The Norton stones are reasonably priced and work quite well. Something in the 4000 and 8000 grit is all you really need, so any decent make (e.g. Naniwa, Shapton) will do just fine. You can make a cheap pasted strop for finishing also, just with chromium oxide powder.

It depends on which route you want to take. Natural, synthetic, pastes, lapping film, or a complete mash-up of all of them! It's really just sticking to one method and learning how to do it well.

Get a Norton 4/8, and then have fun with barber hones. You don't need to have expensive ones (read, Swaty) either. As long as they're not chipped, you are good to go. I enjoyed collecting barber hones first, then started to play with them, and finally learning how to use them. The fun part is seeing which hone works for which blade. I'm currently using a black Raven, a brown Edlis, a black and green, two sided (best bang for your buck), Keen Kutter, a green Cattaraugus and finally another green hone that I can't recall the name of right now, but it had a leather strop on one side that fell off the first time it got wet. Anyway, after initial blade set and final honing (using the Norton), all of my rotation razors see nothing but a barber hone, or a 12k Chinese (only because I have one, and yes I do lather that one too) with lather. With the stones I have, I generalize the colors as such: Black for major touch up, Brown for a razor that needs a nudge to shave better, and green for final touch up. I'm positive green barber hones have Chromium Oxide in their make up, and I'm sure that's why I found they give the best final hone for a BBS shave. I use lather right from my brush on all my barber hones. Barber Hones- Its why God made Barbers!

I found your description of barber hones useful, however I've been reading lithide hones, which are black, are more fine...in the range 12k

Who made green barber hones?

Originally Posted by IanS

Who made green barber hones?

I believe Cattaraugus had some green ones.

My Cattaraugus is very green, and also a bit longer than barber hones, measuring in at 7". My other green hones are probably an olive drab, and not as vivid as the Catt. I consider the two sided Keen Kutter green with the black coarse side. The American Hone Co's Strop-Back hone is green too. Now when I say green, I'm really differentiating between the olive drab color, and the liver brown, of, say, a Swaty. That being said, my Catt. is emarald green!

I am quite new to honing, and I had a near-impossible time with the 30x loupe. Much better luck with a 16x that I picked up at a local coin shop. You don't want to be frustrated right away, trust me on that one