Thread: Hone-tarded

I expressed interest in straight razors to my father last week, because I'm tired of the uncomfortable shave produced by modern safety razors. To my surprise, he went to the safe in the living room and pulled out two straight razors! A Diamond Steel razor, only sharp enough to shave my arm hair, and a Dorko 1151 (a gorgeous blade), but even less sharp than the DS.

I read through the wiki and read up on a couple threads...
http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ton-4-8-a.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...-up-hones.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...pick-hone.html

I'm leaning toward a Norton 4k/8k for the price and a decent edge, but I don't want to be turned off to straight razors by a dull blade. Some argue that a 8K is not face-friendly...

I also don't want to be into hones and a strop for 2-300 and discover that I don't like straight razors.

Could the edges be brought back by a strop and some paste?


I found a deal on a Norton (Gray & Red, Course & Fine) Size 8 x 2 x 3 with a lapping stone and a ceramic fine grit stone for $40, but he doesn't know the grits...

Hello!
I'd simply avoid honing them yourself. Send them out. They'll be done right & you'll know they're shave ready. Minimal expenditure that way.
In a year or so, when they need doing again, you can decide if you want to invest in a hone. That'll give you all the time you need to discover if straights are for you.

Have a look here for honemiesters.

For a deal on Nortons, get the kit on Amazon - the ones you are talking about are almost certainly not suitable for razors, and they are not the 1, 4, or 8k's that we talk about on the forum.

The 8k is most certainly "face-friendly" - you should be able to get a good shave off the 8k, or else your technique isn't there and other hones won't help. Once you get better at honing, you'll get even better shaves off the 8k.

I don't really use pastes, so I can't comment on what they might do to a razor that will shave arm hairs.

I do agree with what Ben said - having at least one razor you know is honed to shave ready by a reputable honer will serve as a benchmark for your own honing and will remove one variable (Is the edge really shave ready?) from the equation as you learn to shave.

+1 on sending them out for pro honing and + 1 on the Norton Waterstone starter set on Amazon if you want to get into honing. Use the two heirlooms to shave with and to judge your own efforts with used razors. Not the ones you father gave you. IMHO.

The best bet is to check the classifieds for a pro honer. There is a large learning curve when it comes to honing. There is also a large expense in acquiring the tools of the trade. I am not trying to discourage you, but it would be cheaper in the short and long run to have someone else hone them and to see what "shave ready" really is. Have fun and good luck.

BTW the Norton series makes a great beginners stone and a lot of the pros still use theirs regularly.


Holy crap, we were all typing at the same time, now thats service!

I had the straight bug and got one shave-ready from a member of this forum. Worked out great. Even with a shave-ready straight eventually it will need to be refreshed by an abrasive pasted strop. That's what the strops can do, maintenance. You've read the wiki so you probably know the deal. I managed to hone up 2 straight edges from eBetray, one of which had compromised steel quality at the edge that ended up collapsing twice before the created edge remained stable for more than one shave. This may or may not be the case for your razors but who knows?

Unfortunately, when I lapped my Nortons I found out the hard way that my norton flattening stone was not flat. ****ed me off something fierce. In addition to that I revealed after the initial layer of honing material on the 4,000 grit side micro holes where the swarf embedded and caused micro nicks in the edge I was attempting to hone. More tears. Very frustrating. Then I found out the hard way (again) that my Spyderco ultra-fine needed to be lapped, even though it doesn't require lapping (being an encrusted gemstone hone) because the factory surface was imperfect and the odd bad protruding sapphire would do the very same thing the evil Mexican-quality Norton 4,000 stone did: cause micro nicks/chips! The cost was over 200 dollars for both honing systems and a lot of grief and frustration.

Of the two combination stones and lapping stones from Norton, and the three synthetic sapphire stones from Spyderco, which is a total of six products with 7 total stones, only 5 of the stones were good enough for straight razors, of which one was fixed (for a total of 6). One of the working Nortons became bad, so I'm still at only six. Honing can be a long, hard road, even if you're a natural and have "the touch".

The situation is probably different with the Naniwas offered at the straight razor designs site. I got my DMT8C (8"x3" coarse (325 grit) diamond tablet) for lapping my Nortons from there. That's a lot of money to maintain and fix up straight razors. Not fun. The Norton stone you describe doesn't sound like it's intended for honing something as demanding as straight razors.

What they said....Send them to a pro....and the pc term is "Hone Challenged"

Not sending the razor to someone that knows what they're doing is a recipe for disaster and frustration. Trust us, we know what we're talking about.

The norton combo should put great edges on the razors, I've shaved off the 8k without any razor burn or issues.

But still......

SEND IT OUT. LOL

Originally Posted by jakep

I'm leaning toward a Norton 4k/8k for the price and a decent edge, but I don't want to be turned off to straight razors by a dull blade. Some argue that a 8K is not face-friendly...

So the two things that make the razor sharp are the hone itself and using it. The second part is what determines the outcome for 99% of the people.

So, if you're worried you'll be turned off by a dull blade the best option is to have somebody with hones and skills sharpen it. Yes it costs a bit of money, but it's far cheaper than the at least hundred or so hours and the few hundred dollars you'll probably end up spending if you go the do it yourself route (after you fail for a while you'll probably end up blaming it on the insufficiently good hone and then buy few more of them).

You should learn to maintain your razors sharp, but that's not the same as sharpening them in the first place.

I don' know what to think of the 99 percentile thing, but I know I was pretty good at honing right off the bat and it was just one honing system, but TWO that failed me. Maybe it was my newbie fault for thinking a machined flat gemstone hone wouldn't need lapping. Maybe I was naive to think my Norton lapping stone would be flat. But I was flat out betrayed by both systems and obviously had the skills to bring even chipped eBay finds back into working order. The only reason I hadn't used an eBay find on the Spyderco in the beginning of my honing (mis)adventures was because I wanted to experiment with 8k level on my face.

I think some of us just get it right from the beginning, maybe from other sharpening tasks (woodcarving, cutlery) or maybe just spending a few months reading through the plethora of other's experiences and advice so generously shared on this and other forums (this place is the best, though).
But some of the mistakes are more betrayal from the hones themselves, and warnings need to go out to the general honing community. I was and am shaving quite well off my own so I know my skills are good. He needs to be aware (ie beware) of some of the problems should he or other noobs (not used derogatively) decide to take the DIY route.