Thread: Re-visting the Chinese Hone

Glen is advising you well about the 8k shave. You can proceed to just about any finisher beyond the 8k provided that you are getting a comfortable, no-pull shave from the 8k stone. The 8k is a jumping off point to a finish stone. An experienced hand can easily finish on an 8k stone. Make that your goal............

I tried the chinese stone today, this was my first time after my beloved belgian stones, the result was very satisfying and my cheeks like it so much. I bought the C12k after reading this discussion, thank you.

I got a 2" wide one from Woodcraft that came in today. Man their shipping is slow. Took 10 days to get here. I don't have any other hones and was hoping for an inexpensive hone to use for touching up my razors. It was pretty close to flat. Just about 1 mm dished on both sides. I used 120 grit wet or dry on a glass table to get it flat and it took under 10 minutes. Then I ran it over 320 and 400 grit which was the finest big sheet of sandpaper I had around. Done in about 20 minutes.

After reading about the tough times some people have had flattening these things, I could have one of the softer stones and it might not be a great touch up hone. I read Glen's first post and he said the soft ones will produce slurry with just the razor and mine doesn't do that so maybe it'll be ok after all.

I couldn't resist trying it out. I've got a cheap eBay Solingen razor I got a while back so I figured I could practice on it since I've never honed a razor before. The blade had a bit of an edge. Didn't cut arm hair or anything but it felt about knife sharp to my terribly uncalibrated thumb pad. I did about 50 x-strokes with moderate pressure, then about 50 more with light pressure. I almost couldn't believe it when it cut arm hair at skin level or slightly above along the whole blade.

I'll work on this blade some more tomorrow evening but I'm pretty excited to think I might be able to shave with it. We'll have to see how that goes though.

The blade had a bit of an edge. Didn't cut arm hair or anything but it felt about knife sharp

Hey now, a sharp knife will cut arm hair. Not all knives have to cut arm hair to be useful, but a sharp one will. And it will push cut paper too.

Originally Posted by 1KnifeGuy4U

Hey now, a sharp knife will cut arm hair. Not all knives have to cut arm hair to be useful, but a sharp one will. And it will push cut paper too.

Ok, I'll concede your point. I'll say it was about as sharp as the kitchen knives after my wife gets hold of them.

Originally Posted by feeltheburn

I got a 2" wide one from Woodcraft that came in today. Man their shipping is slow. Took 10 days to get here. I don't have any other hones and was hoping for an inexpensive hone to use for touching up my razors. It was pretty close to flat. Just about 1 mm dished on both sides. I used 120 grit wet or dry on a glass table to get it flat and it took under 10 minutes. Then I ran it over 320 and 400 grit which was the finest big sheet of sandpaper I had around. Done in about 20 minutes.

After reading about the tough times some people have had flattening these things, I could have one of the softer stones and it might not be a great touch up hone. I read Glen's first post and he said the soft ones will produce slurry with just the razor and mine doesn't do that so maybe it'll be ok after all.

I couldn't resist trying it out. I've got a cheap eBay Solingen razor I got a while back so I figured I could practice on it since I've never honed a razor before. The blade had a bit of an edge. Didn't cut arm hair or anything but it felt about knife sharp to my terribly uncalibrated thumb pad. I did about 50 x-strokes with moderate pressure, then about 50 more with light pressure. I almost couldn't believe it when it cut arm hair at skin level or slightly above along the whole blade.

I'll work on this blade some more tomorrow evening but I'm pretty excited to think I might be able to shave with it. We'll have to see how that goes though.

Maybe that EBay razor had more than a bit of an edge left! Regardless congrats and keep at it. I've only been touching up razors up to this point, but two honed, shave ready razors and I'm hooked!

Self slurrying cnats can be a good thing as the slurry breaks down creating finer particles. I could never get any edge to speak of from my cnat unless I raised some slurry with a dmt. I prefer other hones as my finisher though.

Originally Posted by bill3152

Self slurrying cnats can be a good thing as the slurry breaks down creating finer particles. I could never get any edge to speak of from my cnat unless I raised some slurry with a dmt. I prefer other hones as my finisher though.

So far been happy with mine, but there is so much variance with these stones...

I find that the 220 or 320 DMT will make the hone more aggressive. Perhaps that is because the really fine particles have a place to go into the scratch es left and the larger ones are stopped by them and can cut. Works on the Zulu so it may be so on some of the Chinese hones.
~Richard

This is a good thread. After bouncing around and being frustrated with my first honing efforts, I hit on Glen's method with the Naniwa Superstones. The thread is on here somewhere, but it gave me a standard, fixed process that made it easier to evaluate my results and progress. Still, I'm now wanting to find something past the Naniwa 12K and I have a Chinese stone in the hone box, so I think I'll haul it out and give it a try.

I know we're just talking chinese stones here, but I wanted to add my voice to the fact that the lower end of the honing process is far and away the more critical. If a razor of mine doesn't shave well, I tend not to go to the barber hone, but back to the 1K to work on the bevel. I only drop down to the barber hones if I know the razor has been shaving great and has just declined a bit. But if a fresh-honed razor isn't right, I tend to think it's a bad bevel.

An incomplete or poorly set bevel is like threading a shoelace through the wrong first hole. You just can't fix it without going back to the beginning, which is more efficient anyhow.