Thread: Wife needs help with Hones

My husband is currently deployed and serving in the 5th Fleet with the US Navy. He has very little quality internet access and can't get this site to load. I have been quested with finding him a hone, purchasing and then dispatching it to his ship.

I know there is a TON of information out there talking about the types of hones (barber v. doing something more extensive), synthetic v. real stone, strops and pastes v. stones... it's endless! Not to mention all the numbers and abbreviations! I am drowning in information.

My husband has been straight razor shaving for about a year and he was recently gifted with a custom Tony Miller horse hide/ linen strop combo (Happy Father's Day!). I know you don't use pastes on linen so we are looking for a barber stone (assuming since what I have read is these were meant for travel and are fairly easy to use off the bat and he won't be spending half the night trying to get his razor back to shave ready) that will stand up to ship life. He would love to send out his razor to be sharpened but with 20 days to destination, sharpening time and then 20 days back to destination, it doesn't work.

What I need is some quick info on names and grits. I see 10K and 12K on a lot of things so I'm assuming that is the grit? And something that will be ready for him to use the day it arrives on board. Something that isn't going to be high maintenance while he is deployed, and something that won't require a bunch of accessories like pastes and oils, things that take up space-- he hardly has any.

I appreciate any and all help with this. I really wish I could sit here and read through everything, but time is of the essence for us and getting me started in the right direction would be a huge help. I will take time to read through and try to familiarize myself with hone names, synthetic v. real stone and so on so I can help him in the future.


Thanks so much!

Dechire

I think barbers hone will fit the bill, it is also the cheapest option.
Getting one that will not require any lapping could be more challenging.
I know Glen has barber's hones on his site, he evaluates them and they are lapped and ready for use.
Gem Star Customs - For Sale

currently he has only a DD stone but may be you can e-mail him and ask if he can get you something cheaper.

If you r husband has any way of lapping a stone on the ship, then another option would be norton 4/8k.

This is not an easy task. Honing a straight razor is a delicate work. Of course a skilled honer can get a straight razor to a usable degree of sharpness under any circumstances.
But since your husband not only needs to sharpen his razor, he also needs to learn how to do it makes it difficult.
Learning how to hone can be frustrating and time consuming, and usually I recommend not to learn honing on your one go-to razor.
Chances are you will end up with unsatisfactory results.


But I see that the two of you have no other option and you want to try.
I would recommend a Coticule. Coticules can be bought in pieces (bouts) as small as you like. You should decide what size would fit in his closet
and still be usable for honing. You should also ask for a special rubbing stone (sometimes refered to as nagura).
A Coticule is a (mostly) yellow stone mined in the Ardennes of Belgium. It is a very versatile tool.
If it is rubbed with another coticule (nagura) the mud it creates has a strong cutting power.
This enables your husband to do the "dirty work" also known as setting the bevel.
Diluted the mud (slurry) gets more mellow and starts to polish the edge a little.
Finaly with water only, it creates a shaving sharp edge.

The method is called unicot or dilucot (both are comparable).
There is a ton of written information about these two one stone methods
and hundreds of people recommend it.

A coticule at a small size (I recommend not selected grade, bc. it´s the same stone with minor imperfections) is quite cheap
and could come in handy for your husband. But bewarned, these methods are hard to master.

Just for your information let me show you a normal sharpening routine:

If you are dealing with a factory new edge, or one that has been excessively used (ie not been sharpened for 1 year)
you want to start with a low grit and set the bevel.
This is done on a 1.000 grit stone.

Next you want to erase the scratches and teeth from the edge with a slightly finer stone like a 3.000 or 5.000 grit stone.

The final polish comes on the 8.000 or above stone. A pasted strop with 1µm diamond or finer is a handy tool.
Minor honing imperfections can be masked

So usually you would need at least three stones to get the job done.
Finer stones like a barber hone or an 8-12k stone can be used for touch ups.
These are done when the razor starts to pull, but is in really good condition.
Unfortunately, factory new is not a good condition. If the razor has been sharpened by a professional honer,
especially one from this forum, he might get along with a touch up stone, like a barbers hone.
If he has been using it in factory new condition, the touch up stone might not work.
This has to do with the angle the bevel is set at the factory.

Because a coticule can simulate all three stones that are necessary,
he could be on the safe side, if his level of skill is high enough.

I could get a razor from dull to shaving sharp in under one hour on a coticule.
Bart (kind of capacity on the field of Coticules) has made a video showing this method: Klick