Thread: honing question

As others have said, the number of strokes really does depend on the razor! Its not an exact science, and I had a similar experience to SR-CMT when I was honing a couple of my razors that had dulled.

One of them took a great edge after 20 strokes on the 4k, the other took nearly 40. It varies from razor to razor!

In terms of the stones you have, it sounds like you may need to get some other grits.

You'll need:

1k - This is your bevel setter. Do not move off this stone until you can shave arm hair at skin level all the way along the blade. This ensures you have a good bevel that you can then refine.

4k - (Or a Naniwa 3k or 5k). This is your sharpener. You should be able to shave arm hair floating just above the skin after this stone. You'll hear the hairs pinging off.

8k - This is your polisher. This stone is just refining the edge from the sharpener and making the edge smoother. You can actually shave right off this stone if you want to test the edge. If you can shave here, you have a good edge.

10k+ - This is your finisher. This is very final touch up and refinement of your edge.

0.5 micron diamond spray on felt/denim or chromium oxide paste on something (leather or linen) - A further refinement of the edge. Also useful for touch ups when the edge starts to dull.

You wont need to dip below 1k unless you have damage to the edge like a chip or something.

Good kits include the 220/1k & 4/8k Norton set from Amazon. You can also get a 5/8/12k set of Naniwas or a 4/8/16k set of Shaptons from SRD. You'll just need to add the 1k to each of those sets.

Which to go for? The Naniwas and Shaptons are both very popular at the moment and either set would serve you well. I have the Shaptons and they're great! Other members have given rave reviews to the Naniwas.

Make sure you keep your strokes very light, with the only pressure on the blade being the weight of the blade itself.

Check out the videos on youtube as well, as they offer great advice! Jockeys posted a video of KenRup doing a full edge restore and honing and thats a really great set of videos!

Good luck!