Thread: I have a few questions about Hones and Strops.

I would like to know what the recomended hone is. I recently purchased a Norton Water Hone 4000/8000. I showed it to a mentor of mine and he told me that he did not believe that this was a good hone to use on my straight razor. He is an old school barber, he says that he used a hone that was black and white( im thinking is was an old barber hone). Keep in mind this is over 30 years ago and he no longer sharpenes straight razors. At first he told me to use mineral oil on my hone, i was a little weiry of this idea. I stuck to water and it worked great. I was just wondering if there is a specific stone that ( mineral oil) oil is to be used on. I also would like to know what the best type of strop is (leather,horse,ect?) and what the recomended length of a strop should be. I appreciate any advise. thank you.

Originally Posted by Rockabilly

I would like to know what the recomended hone is. I recently purchased a Norton Water Hone 4000/8000. I showed it to a mentor of mine and he told me that he did not believe that this was a good hone to use on my straight razor. He is an old school barber, he says that he used a hone that was black and white( im thinking is was an old barber hone). Keep in mind this is over 30 years ago and he no longer sharpenes straight razors. At first he told me to use mineral oil on my hone, i was a little weiry of this idea. I stuck to water and it worked great. I was just wondering if there is a specific stone that ( mineral oil) oil is to be used on. I also would like to know what the best type of strop is (leather,horse,ect?) and what the recomended length of a strop should be. I appreciate any advise. thank you.

You have the Norton 4k/8k, so I would highly recommend the Norton 4k/8k!
The barber is wrong if he was basing his recommendation strictly on what he used to use. Odds are that the black and white hone was a coticule, though the colors don't match, they are dark and light. Alternatively, it might have been a synthetic barber hone. Regardless, do NOT use oil on your WATERSTONE. I wouldn't go looking for a stone to put some oil on when you already have the Norton.

Regarding the strop, the leather is personal preference. Either will work just fine. For length, you can get by with as little as 12" though the working length of most strops is 17" to 21".

Rest assured that your Norton is a superior stone to just about any oil stone for razor work. The best of the best use them here or have used them in the past with superlative results

No doubt your old barber freind has talents, but the stone technologie of synthetic water hones barely existed 30 years ago.

The landscape of Straight Razors and Honing such has changed dramatically the past 30 years.
Many things that have been done religiously back then have been lost along the way. The old barbers had one mentor or one book and probably never got to exchange experiences with others. There were several dogmatic rules.

Along the past few years much knowledge and many traditions have been lost. So we are (hopefully) not as religious about methods anymore.
But a few things have been profen to be "apprropiate".
The Norton Waterstones seem to be one of them.
So basically you did everything right with these waterstones.
If anything doesn´t work, it is not because of your stones

I see the barbers point entirely. You should toss the stone you already have and jump in your "Wayback" machine, travel into the past, and find this elusive black and white hone.

Also, if you wouldn't mind, could you hone the razor while your back in time and let me know how sharp it is when you return? I have a theory on razor dulling that I haven't figured out how to test yet.

There's a bias against oilstones that in most cases are likely correct. Your Norton will do the job nicely though. A finishing stone (10k+) would be a nice addition (the Chinese 12k sold by woodcrafters has served well & usually stands tall in photo comparisons - though consistency can be an issue). A bevel setter (1K) would complete the battery of needed stones.

I think the jury is out on the oil stone. They are still sold, and recommended by razor vendors
Razor Hones (scroll to bottom of page).

To test their use, I started w/ a shave-ready blade, and gave 200 passes on an OLD translucent stone. The edge was improved, lopped very fine hair easily. The best argument against seems to be the amount of time/passes on the stones - takes a long time.

I really appreciate the feedback thank you. I always appreciate any advise i can get especially from someone that has been using straight razors for a while and has alot of knowledge.

Oh, and on the strop, the critter doesn't matter. As long as it's a quality piece of leather it will do it's job just fine.