Thread: bench hones

well all im back home finally, now i have a bit of time to try to figure put what bench hones i should make. im thinking 2 leather, 1 felt and one balsa. i was thinking the 2 leather for crox and the felt for th e.25 diamond. not sure what to do with the balsa yet. if anyone can point in into the right direction please throw me a bone thanks guys

I'm not entirely sure what you're saying your plan is. Are you saying you're considering a diamond paste felt bench strop, 2 different chromox leather bench strops and a balsa with a fourth impregnation bench strop?


I went straight from a swaty hone to a .5 chrox balsa strop for awhile and it worked nicely for me. I know Lynn speaks highly of the diamond impregnated felt. I'd imagine just those two would be a quite nice combo in and of itself... just make sure you clean the razor WELL between them as they do pick up quite a few particles when you use the balsa strop and I'm sure you don't want to be putting larger particles in your finest felt strop.

I've got a 4 sided paddle with leather and 3.0, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.25 diamond paste. I've got a HandAmerican magnetic flat bed with chrom ox on felt. I have 3 balsa hones with the same as the finer three that are on my paddle. When I go from one grit to another I wipe the blade off between them.

All of the above work real good but the balsa is cheap and easy to make a flatbed out of. Go to a hobby store and get aircraft balsa. No need to lap it. I got a piece 3x36 for $1.92. Glue it to a base and apply paste. I used plexiglas for a base but some people use hardwood.

Jimmy, what benefits does a 3.0 paste offer compared to a 3.0 particle bench stone?

Originally Posted by IanS

Jimmy, what benefits does a 3.0 paste offer compared to a 3.0 particle bench stone?

I don't know from a scientific point of view. I've never used it by itself. I have used it in sequence with the other pastes. Perhaps the shape of the diamonds ? A fellow I know who is quite good at getting razors sharp told me of a sequence he finishes with using diamond paste. So I tried it and found it to be very effective.

IME if I were to follow the 8k by finishing all of my razors with diamond paste in a sequence going from the 3.0, 1.0, 0.5 to the 0.25 they will become scary sharp. I only do that once in a great while though because I like the challenge of getting them as sharp as I can get them off of the hones. I don't especially like scary sharp either.

If the day comes when honing ceases to be an enjoyable challenge for me and I just want a sharp razor to shave with I will probably be more of a routine paste finisher. Playing with razors and hones is fun now so I don't take the easy way. Just my thing.

ok so then i will go with that then, thanks all for the help