Thread: The best finishing stone

If I asked you which would you consider the best finishing stone available in the market which one would you recommend?

Please name only the one you consider the best.

That's a trick question

I have several, and they all deliver great results.
I guess it depends on type of steel, progression used and what I'm aiming for in that specific edge.

If I was forced to just keep one though, I would have to say my Y/G Escher.
It delivers great results on most any razor.
I've yet to not reach a true shave ready result on that stone. It may have took a couple attempts, but once there, the resulting edge is phenomenal!

That's like asking what is the best car. What stones do you have? What is your honing experience? For the money, a naniwa ss 12k is great, easy to learn & hard to beat. I have a few finishers & I would say that a thuringian/escher would be a second recommendation as either will work on most blades.

It's an impossible question to answer! Ask a forum of razor geeks what their favourite stone is and you'll get dozens of different answers.

Eschers and thuringians are very good, quality Japanese stones are great (I really like my Maruichi and asagi stones, they'd be my pick probably) the Nani 12k is about the best synthetic finisher out there, some people like barber hones, others prefer pastes entirely...

This is how HAD starts. You get one stone, like it, but wonder if that other stone over there is better...!

From what I've seen so far my asagi and Maruichi are the best for me, closely followed by an Escher. But that could all change at some point in the future if I find a better stone...!

The absolutely best finishing stone is what suits your needs the best. Should it be cheap? Fast? Consistent? Big? Natural? Minimal maintenance? It all depends. I have various finishers, but I think that the most important thing is to learn to use them. You have to hone a lot to reach a point where a better finisher will have more impact on your final edge, than practice.

Lynn finishes most of his razors on a Naniwa 12k, and 0,5 micron diamond paste. That tells me all I have to know. I could have the best finisher in the world, my edges won't be a match

The magic is in the hands, as Glen says always, and I think that sentence is the golden rule of honing. Good hones won't teach you how to hone.

Of man made hones I had real good luck with Naniwa SuperStone 12k and Shapton Professional 15k. The Norton 8k ain't no slouch either for that matter, and will provide a close comfortable shave. For natural hones the Escher yellow green is my preference. I've had good results with some coticules and with a Nakayama Asagi. For "best" the distinguishing characteristic would , IMO, be the feel of the honed edge on the individual's face. That is going to vary from one to another but all of the fore mentioned hones will get you where you want to go if you have the skill to get the best out of them.

Synthetic 12k SS will give you a very good edge.

Naturals, there are several that I think can be considered close equals, Escher, Chrnley forrest, Jnat.
Escher is the most consistent in quality, and as far as I know they only vary in speed.
Jnat and CF , you need to find a good quality stone before you can get good results.
A good Jnat will be very versatile stone to use.

There ain´t no best. Just like there is no best car, or house to live in.

My favourite Finsihing Stone is the Shapton Glass 30.000.
This includes having the rest of the Shapton family, to get along with.
It fits all my needs. It gives a truly dark mirror polish and finishes extremely fine
with an edge that gives me outstandig shaves.

So for me, the best synthetic finisher when price is not a problem
is the Shapton 30.000. It is the finisher I use most. Partly because the Shapton GS is my go-to system.
I compared it to: Suehiro 20k, Shapton Pro 15k, Shapton Glass 16k, Naniwa 10k, Chosera 10k and others.

When it comes to naturals I have two Japanese naturals that I favour (one of them very fresh, so I can´t be sure which one I like better)
A Nakayama Kiita with Nashiji and Maruka/Maruichi, as well as nihon kamisori stamp. Bought from So a long time ago.
The second one is a Shoubudani dark Asagi, recently bought from Maksim at JNS.
Both are wonderfull natural finishers. Outstandig shaves!
And, since slurry is a factor with these you can do all the work from bevelsetting to shaving on one stone.
These are my favourite naturals (note that I lack an Esher and CF).

When price is a big factor, I would say the best finisher is: a diamond paste on a felt strop!
It does not get better than that (not even with 200$+ stones) and they are cheap and easy.

The best finisher for a newcomer I would say is the Naniwa Super 10.000, because it´s so easy to use and gives a perfect mirror.

Where were you going with your question.
Just starting a conversation, or are you looking to buy something?

If only the word 'best' was clear, but it isn't, and that's the problem. The meaning of the word 'best' is relative to the context in which it is used. For example, as someone has mentioned, the best car could be a Mercedes McClaren if all you need to do is go 200 miles per hour. If you are taking kids to soccer practice, then the best car is probably a mini-van. Regarding hones, 'best' can mean 'easiest to use', 'fastest working', 'easiest to keep lapped', 'most durable', or 'gives the best feedback'.

If I had to pick just one hone for finishing and stick with it, it would be the Naniwa SS 12K. I have a Shapton 16K and a 30K, and the Naniwa has just about made them obsolete.

That is a hard one. I use several. You'll find some razors just prefer different finsihers, They just seem to respond better. I use my Y/G Escher quite a lot. One stays out as a matter of fact by my razors with a slurry for touch ups. I love the edge I get off it.
I'd say it's my go to finisher 90% of the time.
I also use many others as the mood strikes me, and I'll also keep going where many guys stop, take the Coticule for instance, I don't stop there even though you can. Aftter the Coti, I'll do a bit on my Nani 12k, followed by the Shapton 16k, and then if I'm in the mood a J nat, Asagi, Either Maruka, Maruichi (w/kamisori stamp), Shoubudani or Ozuku. To really get the most out of those high grit J nats, it helps if your coming off a 16k. I have a Charnley I hardly use. Every once in a while, I'll use some type of paste at the end, but I usually like to shave with the blade a bit before using the pastes and then it's only 10 passes.

Talking about how some razors respond better to certain stones, I had a Western style Japanese blades from Kanayama, I was honing it on my Naniwa's and it was microchipping big time. I was angry because I just had it rescaled in Jade Ghost, and figured I spent a bunch of money for nothing. The blade just continued to chip and chip until I broke out a Coticule, Dressante to be exact, did the slurry thing, finished with water, on a La Nouvelle, and she was good as new. I think a Tam O Shanter would have worked too....