Thread: Need to stop buying hones, and catch RAD instead

Now you know why I hone for free. 'not something I hide.

You know, a lot of us have or had that problem. You really need to stop and think about what your doing, and why your doing it. Some guys keep buying and buying before they even master what they have. It's funny, when I started, I tried to buy every hone out there, and I had the funds to do it. Now, it's "less is more". I use a Chosera 1k, The Norton 4/8 and an Escher. That's it...I bought a bunch of other stones. I hardly use them. Every once in a while, I break out a Jnat, or the Charnley, maybe even a Coticule. When I was buying Coticules and selling them, Select grade was the stone to have, that's it, maybe a combo. All these vein names they have now didn't exist. You took what the vendor had, or the quarry sent you. Seems like pretty smart marketing to me. I understand they charge more for certain veins now. I could be wrong. That's just my opinion as a former Coticule vendor.

Honestly, To me, Once you get a good bevel set, and really learn your Nortons, The finisher is just icing on the cake. I'm partial to Escher/Thuringian. It leaves a butter smooth edge on my blade, no harshness at all. As far as HAD goes, it's just something that takes time to grow out of. No one could have talked me out of buying stones....We laugh about it, but it's like any other addiction really.

Zib,

That's all very true. If I wanted to I could probably do everything on three stones (norton 1k, 4/8, and Naniwa 12k). Right now, my best honed razors come from that progression. That may never change

I can't fully explain my attraction to hones. I can tell you that for me, it has less to do with the edge, than with the stone and the process itself. I really just like them. I like how they look, and I like how they feel. For me a natural stone is like a piece of jewelry, and a synthetic stone is a functional work of art.

When I have a great shave with my Boker (as I did today), I'm enjoying the shave just a little more because I'm thinking about the coticule I honed it with. It's linked to that stone, and the edge has the stones "fingerprint" on it.

Right now I'm just having fun. Maybe one day I will join the "less is more" crowd, just not yet.


Michael