Thread: Re-visting the Chinese Hone

Glenn,

I've been finishing on a Chinese 12k and always thought I got good results. I'm relatively new to this and I have NEVER finished on anything else so I have nothing to compare to.

What's your favorite finishing stone(s)?

Originally Posted by greatgoogamooga

I know this is a slightly old post. Glen, any chance you can post pics of the hones you tested, indicating which are which?

Goog

Sorry but I can not, I gave the others away, I could take pics of the #4 hone but honestly there is little difference in looks, more in feel... Trust me here, with my lack of real photography skills, you would never be able to tell anything anyway from one of my pics

Originally Posted by JetHed

Glenn,

I've been finishing on a Chinese 12k and always thought I got good results. I'm relatively new to this and I have NEVER finished on anything else so I have nothing to compare to.

What's your favorite finishing stone(s)?

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ne-planet.html

Hehehe just did that thread the other day,,,

They are all tools, I use them that way... "Best" can get real sticky too, some people really love their Natural stones so I try and avoid the "Best" discussion...

I can tell you this much there hasn't been one yet that I have thought is BAD some are less consistent than others, and some require a bit of finesse to get a great feeling edge, but I haven't met one yet, I could not shave from....At this level of finish there is a ton of personal opinion here in fact mostly personal opinion....

I not sure if my is a good one but i have so many good stones to choice from.
So i don't think i be using the chinese one.

Mine is simply black with no other colors in it at all and very smooth to hone on. Hardly any feel but puts a nice finish on a razor in about 20 passes. However I have nothing to compare to except a barber hone.

Originally Posted by mackie

Mine is simply black with no other colors in it at all and very smooth to hone on. Hardly any feel but puts a nice finish on a razor in about 20 passes. However I have nothing to compare to except a barber hone.

Sometimes in our quest for the 'Best' hone we loose sight of what we are trying to do when purchasing hones or any other gear. To me, I am trying to improve my shaves w/o having to sell the farm to do so. If your budget allows the purchase of expensive gear to try to get improvement have at it. It is a very rare time when I can throw a chunk of cash at gear. The Chinese hone is a good one and cheaper than most. It is a slow cutter and extremely hard. Are there better hones available? Probably, but when you compare the earned value of this hone compared to others costing hundreds of dollars it is a good purchase. This hone was my first hone after a coticule and it did improve the edges by obtaining a sharper edge after the coticule. I now have two other hones in this range, an Escher I got thrown into a flea market purchase for free and a thruigen I picked up for a buck. Both are great hones but there are some razors that get a better edge finishing on the Chinese. The Naniwa 10k and 12k or the Shapton 10k, 16k and 30k may be better. I don't have any but I have tried razors honed on them and I am getting comparable shaves with the hones I have on hand. Any additional hones purchased for $100's probably will not have an earned value high enough for the improvements to the edge for me. In the end we should be enjoying our hobby w/o exceeding our budgets. The Chinese hone is a low budget tool that can get ya great results when used properly. It is a hone I use often.

By using the Harder hones much like an Arkansas Stone or a Charnley Forest, and Lapping to a much higher level, then using something like Smith's honing solution or a touch of Soap with the water you can get a much better result, it takes a ton of laps but this is a solution to the scratchiness...

Sounds like I will have to re-buy my C12k and try it again.

Thanks! I will try soap and hope it makes things better.

since this thread has had a bump, I thought I might share some PHIG porn for you all.

I like my Kajima alot.