affordable hones

well i got a 3 by 30 piece of latigo from an amish tack shop. when i told him what i wanted it for he put a latch on the top and i asked him to leave the other end plain so i can cut to a good length. it cost me $15 total. now i have to find where to get the herringbone cotton for the second piece. how thick does it need to be? what kind of store could i find it? also, where is a place to get stones for a decent price? what kind and grits should i get? i heard norton was a good brand. are there others that are suitable and wont break my bank?,,,willy

I'm sold on a Natural Chinese water stone from the Guangxi province of China. 12,000 grit for a finishing stone

Oppps I bought mine on Fleabay for a whole$23 shipped from Poland. I've never had a smooth stone like this before. Finishing mainly about 12,000 grit

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Originally Posted by willym

well i got a 3 by 30 piece of latigo from an amish tack shop. when i told him what i wanted it for he put a latch on the top and i asked him to leave the other end plain so i can cut to a good length. it cost me $15 total. now i have to find where to get the herringbone cotton for the second piece. how thick does it need to be? what kind of store could i find it? also, where is a place to get stones for a decent price? what kind and grits should i get? i heard norton was a good brand. are there others that are suitable and wont break my bank?,,,willy

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What are you planning to do with your stone? If you just need something to maintain your razors the above mentioned chinese stone would work, as would a relatively inexpensive barber hone. You could even maintain your blades for a pretty long time by putting some abrasive paste on the back side of your strop.

If you want to fix up blades that need more work than that, the Nortons are a very good choice for the money.

I'm pretty sold on the C12K as a hone for touching up razors. You really don't need the fabric piece to your strop. The leather is fine alone. Your razors shouldn't need any touching up for quite a while anyway. I'd leave getting a stone aside for a bit too. But, if you must, have fun.