longer or wider hone?

Hi,


I'm planning on buying a King waterstone 1k as a bevel setter.
I can choose between two dimensions: 8" x 2" or 7" x 2.5".

I initially thought I'd take the wider one so that I'm more likely to have uniform strokes (edge-length-wise).
Then I thought I'd take the longer one so that each stroke will cut more and because I understood that it is easier to hone smiling edges with narrower hones...
Now I am lost....

What would you take and why?

Note: I have about one year of straight shaving experience and tried more or less successfully to hone 5 or 10 razors with Naniwa Super Stones.


thanks
christophe

It doesn't matter....honest.

If I was forced to choose, I'd pick the cheaper one....because it's less expensive. Same stone, same quality, my purpose is honing for myself.

Either one will work just fine.

My preference would be to the longer one, but that's just my preference... You won't be wrong either way.

I hone my smiling blades on standard width hones all the time. It seems to work just fine.

as a relatively new honer, I wish I had a wider stone as opposed to the longer one I bought. I find my norton much easier to use than my coticule due to the extra width.

I'd go for the hone that most resembles the set you've already started building. I've got smiling blades and narrow hones, but don't go out of my way to pair them. I bought the narrow hone mostly for travel--it's about 5 x 3/4". All my first-choice hones (i.e., I'm home and have access to the full collection) are more or less the dimensions of a Norton 4k/8k. With the right stroke, a smiling blade is no problem. Check out the "rolling x" on the wiki.

Best wishes and happy honing

Going to go measure mine :rofl2:


OK after measuring my King stone

Mine is bigger than yours :p

it is 2 6/8 x 8 1/4

I don't know about you, but theres something satisfying about having an 8".

Doesn't it need to be reasonably hard, too? I hear the soft ones are less desirable.

My vote is for wider. Easier for me to keep the blade flat. Here's a video from Glen's series of utube vids with Charlie Lewis, aka spazola honing a smiling blade. Gives a good example of a rolling xstroke. YouTube - Honing A Smiling Straight Razor Blade

Regards,

Howard

Definately longer but narrower, especially for smiling blades

Size just doesn't matter if your technique is perfect. Really I swear.:deadhorse:

Get whatever rectangular size you want. For the narrow hone, turn it on its side.