12K or 6K

Hello fellow shavers,
my straight razor arrived today (nothing out of the ordinary, one of the cheapest actually) and I tried it for the first time. I didn't cut myself and I have mixed feelings about it since I have a chinstrap and a straight razor is not the best forming tool but I'm going to remove it presently so in a while I'll be able to fully appreciate my first real SR shaving.
Anyway - I'm poor and only have enough money to buy one hone (I reckon that a strop will do in the mean time, not more than a month). Should this be a 6K or 12K? Or are a least 2 hones essential for a good shave

You can probably go longer than 1 month before needing a hone, I went from November till early march on just stropping every shave and was fine. I would suggest a 10k or 12k just for maintenance you will not need any courser than that unless you want to start setting a bevel.

^Thanks. That's what I also thought, but after seeing some people on youtube having 2-sided hones, 2 hones and so on I started having second thoughts, also when I saw similar threads here.

With careful use a strop will keep the edge going for quite a considerable time. However, you suffer the double whammy of being new to this and therefore new to stropping, so take it easy and practice with something (like a smooth edged butter knife) until you get the hand/eye thing right. If after a while the edge falls off a bit, you can still get away with not buying a hone by getting some cheap chrome oxide powder and using it on a bit of balsa (or even newspaper) to bring the edge back to snuff. There are plenty of posts about chrome oxide on the forum if you want to find out about it and how to use it.

Regards,
Neil

There are a lot of factors that go into this: If cost is your biggest concern paste is probably the cheapest route. You can get Dovo red/black stick for about 10 dollars and use an old belt with a rough leather back to apply it to. This will keep your blade going for many many years. This is the route I like see my sig. Another cost effective way is getting a barber hone off ebay this can cost you anywhere from 10-30 dollars. With the barber hone you need to be careful though cause you can get a bad one and then need to start over. Next is your 12k hones most run 60-80 dollars and perform similarly to barber hones but you know what grit you are getting for sure. Then for about the same price as the 12k you can get a Norton 4k/8k if you want to go with a hone the Norton will give you the most bang for your buck as you can do just about any type of honing you need to on it.

Also as you were told above stropping should give you at least a few months so read around a bit and figure out what is best for you

I would also suggest a barber's hone, but I wouldn't suggest ebay. There are better ways of purchasing these hones. Glen tests the hones that he sells here: Gem Star Customs - For Sale
These can be had for little money he has already lapped them so you don't have to. No need to test fate when you don't have money. I should know I'm a college student with a daughter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by caelum

I have a chinstrap and a straight razor is not the best forming tool

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I think I would disagree. You can almost cut to the exact hair once you get some experience.

As for the hone, it is my understanding that just for maintaining an edge, a barber hone is a great option and most likely cheaper than a 12k

I found a 12K hone on ebay for about $25 with more than enough positive feedback for me not to worry about the quality. I would probably go with that as a paste would estimate at about $15-20 with the shipping costs.

Any other adivce appreciated

ats200
yep, it's prolly my inexperience because in order to cut it rightly I need to use just a part of the blade rather than the whole blade itself. At any rate it's harder than with a Wilkinson Sword.

I would suggest a c12k

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eleblu05

I would suggest a c12k

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I think the 12k ebay hone he was speaking about is a c12k.

If a chinese 12k is referred to as c12k, yeah, that's what I'm going for.

The People's Hone of Indeterminate Grit (also the C12k) is a decent stone, especially for the money. I got one from Woodcraft.com that was only $28 shipped, and will last longer than I'll be alive. However, it is glacially slow, so be prepared to spend hours sliding the razor back and forth across the dull, gray surface with little results. It's better as a maintenance hone than anything else. However, it is definitely worth the minor investment, as it is consistent and n00b-friendly. A slurry is easy to build and the cutting speed won't get you into trouble. As your experience builds, though, you may find yourself more and more bored with it.

I'd suggest buying it, but weigh your options before you buy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by caelum

If a chinese 12k is referred to as c12k, yeah, that's what I'm going for.

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Chinese stones are very differerent. Like a lotery. A bought a good one, but it was second one. I value it , but expences are 25$ twice. As a beginner you can manage first months without a stone with strop only. Even if something wrong happens and your razor become dull, you can have it professionally honed for a small sum. Meanwhile try to read more about honing and nones and shaving as a whole.

Have you checked out the wiki and Lynns guide for your first SR shave? Both are listed here on the forum. I suggest checking these out before you spend any more money and possibly end up with items that may be lf little or no use to you, or miss picking somethin up that you might actually need.

Michael