Thread: Diamond hone

Hey everyone,

So im pretty new to the straight razor world and thought i would try my hand at honing. this may be a silly question but can i use a diamond hone on my actual razor?

thanks in adavance

That is a big question!

In principal, yes, you can use one or more diamond hones for razors.
DMT is one of the makers of such diamond hones.

However, you'll need to define what honing you are gonna be doing, and thus, what hones are needed.
You cannot use just any diamond hone and hope to shave with it.
Many diamond hones are made for other purposes and or tools, and may have the wrong grit and particle size in the honing elements of the hone.

There are 4 stages to honing.
Bevel-setting, sharpening, polishing and finishing. And that does not include restoration.

Now, as a generalization, you'd use a 1000 grit stone for bevel setting, a 3-5000 for sharpening, a 8-12000 for polishing and you could go even higher for finishing. (Finishing can be done at 8000, but most of us go higher nowadays)

What honing are you looking to do?
And what state is your razor in?

For further info I'd suggest you read the article on this in the wiki as a start for your search.
Also, search around in the honing section for info on how to use the various honing regimes.

Thanks for the info!

i purchased a cheap starter razor off of ebay and its definatly not shave ready. since then i have purchased a bunch of razors that are shave ready but some are not. so im looking to reset the bevel and so some sharpening on the junk ones for practice.

ill take a look at the wiki and see what i can find

thanks again!

Originally Posted by lucky13

Hey everyone,

So im pretty new to the straight razor world and thought i would try my hand at honing. this may be a silly question but can i use a diamond hone on my actual razor?

thanks in adavance

Welcome --

We also need to talk grit size when talking hones.
The work horse solution for many is
a Norton 4K/8K combo hone combined
with a largish 320 grit DMT (diamond on steel)
to keep the surface flat and fresh.

DMT makes an extra extra fine 8k stone
that is moderately expensive. Some
folk like it some not. While the DMT
extra extra fine is rated at 8k the edge
it produces is not as 'smooth' as the
8k Norton hone by most accounts.
I expect yet another finishing stone
or pasted strop will be needed after
the xxf DMT.

Another workhorse combo is the
Naniwa 3k/8k. It has many fans
and also needs to be kept flat and
fresh.

These combo hones work well with
the Pyramid method -- see the WiKi
on the pyramid method.

Coarser diamond "stones" tend to
chip a razor so some caution is needed
when talking about how to use them.


If you have nothing now
a combo hone 4k/8k or 3k/8k with a 320grit
DMT to keep it flat is a good start. Many
shavers will want a 10k or 12k finisher to finish polish
the 8K edge some will be very happy with an 8K edge.

If you already have a pile of sharpening
stones most will be too coarse for
razors but there are exceptions
in many work shops so ask...

EDIT:
In some cases sending a razor out to be correctly
sharpened is desired. A "honemaster" has a rich
selection of stones and hones to refresh a blade.
This can be the least expensive path to start.
See the classified for sharpening services.