Quote Originally Posted by Pithor View Post
I'm sorry, but I have to strongly disagree with you and Shooter74743, mainly on the part I highlighted in bold. I can't imagine how learning to hone on synthetics will prepare you for honing on naturals. Maybe you'll learn the proper strokes. Maybe you'll learn what a good bevel is. Maybe you'll notice after one hundred tries that you progressed from one grit to the next too early, and you cannot get a decent shaving edge. ......
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Just don't start with synthetics just because "that's how everyone started and it works." It's not, I didn't start with them and that works too.
While you make some good points, and many a wet-shaver has indeed started on naturals with good results, there's good arguments to be made for starting with synthetics.

The main one being that a synthetic is a known entity.
That means you can quite easily follow the lead of what others have done before you.
10 laps on a Norton 4K is just that. 10 laps on a JNat or a Coticule could be anything from a lot to very little. It all depends on the stone.
And from a guiding new honers point of view, that kinda complicate things.

The pyramid honing is but one example of this, and that has helped out tons of new guys getting a shaveable edge.
The JaNorton thread around here was also rather a good example of this. Many ways and tecniques to test out, with a stone that was the same to all participants.

I know there are similar examples out there from the natural stone lovers (me being one of them), but they aren't as easily repeated with success as many would like to think for a newbie, be that Dilucote or Nagura progressions with fancy names.

We all know that with practice there are tons of ways, and tools, to hone a razor properly, but from my point of view, the synth start seems the easiest one. Not the only one, just the easiest one.