Thread: Soliciting Opinions on My Thoughts of a Hone Purchase

I started out with a set of Naniwa SS.
I initially bought the 2-5-8-12K stones.
I was a bit afraid the 1K would be a bit to risky for me. I didn't wanna ruin anything.
I found lots of info, spent many hours reading about how to use these stones, and eventually I learned to keep my razors good, and even hone my new acquisitions.
I like these stones a lot. They don't see much use anymore, but that has nothing to do with their abilities as hones. They are great!!

Birnando,

Thanks, I am actually thinking of just going for a nice set of Naniwas to begin also. My main drawback is that it seems many who are experienced in honing tend to shy away from them in time. Obviously they are great stones but what is it that makes people eventually switch to a Shapton, natural, or other?

ats200:

I don't think that has anything to do with the quality or abilities of the Naniwas.

For me it's simply because I really enjoy honing, and are interested in all the systems out there.
Both synthetics and naturals.
I'm no honemeister, I have only a couple hundred razors under my belt, but from my experience I feel I can say this:
A good honer can do magic and then some on the Naniwas!
In other words. Many systems will work beautifully, Naniwas are just one of those.

Thanks, that really helps. I understood that results would imrpove with experience but with all of the opinions out there it was a bit overwhelming. Consensus seems to be that Naniwa is slightly easier to start with so I've almost definitely made up my mind now.

Having worked most all of them, if I had to choose only one, it would be the Naniwa SS, as they are the best on the tuff razors, great on everything else...
Have fantastic feedback too which is important...

But I don't have to choose only one

Edit: when I said tuff razors let me explain,,, The Naniwas excel on the Hard as heck TI's, the Chippy Revisors, Wackers and Friodurs, you can actually cut an impressive edge on a Kamisori, and they can handle those big ole Sheffielders too....They are my goto stones for Damascus and High Tech steel customs also...
All the easy stuff any hone can do, where the Naniwas can do the hard stuff too... hope that makes sense..

I have the norton 220/1k, 4k/8k, and the nani 12k and a c12. I could hone happily ever after...something tells me that I'll end up with a natural finished at some point whether it be a thurry, escher, or charnley forest. At the moment, I'm happy with what I have. The others will come with time. I'm certain.