Thread: Question on Hones

Hi, can someone give me a quick rundown of what the different #K's mean on hones? i searched the wiki but didnt see anything.

Also i have a franz swaty on the way, and i was wondering if this, as a beginner, is all i need to sharpen my blades up a little bit.
When i watched lynns video on honing he says to use only 4-5 strokes? is that enough?
when you send your razor off to be honed, does someone just run it accross a stone 4-5 times and thats it?
also does the franz swaty have a #K rating or certain grit or anything?

Thanks a lot!

A stone's grit refers to the size of the sharpening particles on it's surface.
A higher grit rating means smaller particles, which means it doesn't cut away as much metal but leaves a finer finish.

K means 1000. So if someone talks about a 4k stone, that's a 4000 grit.

Generally grits below 1000 are only used for razors that need a lot of work.
Bevel setting is done in the 1000-2000 range.
Sharpening is done in the 2000-8000 range.
Polishing is done in the 8000+ range.

Most people follow some sort of a progression that leads from bevel setting, through sharpening, and up to polishing.

Finally, your Swaty is a barber hone, which means it's in a very high grit range. It can be used to maintain an edge that is already finished, but not to sharpen an edge that is not sharp to begin with.

I think I've heard Swaty's are estimated around 10k, but different Swaty's give different finishes. I've had a long one with two lines of text, a normal one with two lines of text, and a normal one with three lines of text - I found the normal one with three lines of text was the finest of those three.