Thread: Travel kit for honing

It's pretty nice. Family holiday og Gran Canaria. Temperatures are high 37 degrees Celsius. The air is a bit misty and salt. So my restored Heartring razor startet showing signs of rust, so I rehoned the razor on my vintage Coticule. It's a really fine hone and leaves a smooth edge.


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Thanks for the enlargement. From the small pic, I thought the cover on the right might have been a small strop stretched across a hollowed piece of wood.

Edit: This does have me thinking about how "minimal" one could go, assuming that one was forced to deal with beater blades with chipped edges in the wild while travelling. Maybe a small extra-fine DMT and a small narrow coti, followed by a small narrow piece of leather stretched across a hollowed board would do the trick.

I've been reviewing this thread, including my own previous post. It's been difficult for me to conceptualize what I want and there's a huge range of 'travel kit'.

The problem is defining what you want to do at an acceptable weight, and the acceptable weight will probably depend on mode of travel.

So first off, if I want only to maintain my own razors and I'm traveling by air, something that looks like my previous post works, I've done it. Now, if I add that I want to hone used razors that I buy along the way, not so much. I bought one in Avignon, France that's like most of the used ones I buy off ebay or other venues from Europe, 'U' shaped bevels that require several minutes on a Shapton 500 to straighten out. I couldn't do it with what I posted before, not in any reasonable time.

If I wanted to do that and minimize weight for air travel, I'd probably take a 2k Shapton Glass HR with sheets of 320 sandpaper cut to fit the glass side. That takes care of the coarse work and the bevel setting. Then I could use something like my Narutaki, but a more generously sized Shobu type 100 would be better, and in between would be a botan-mejiro-koma-tomo (or mini diamond plate)which I have small ones.

Cheers, Steve

Yes, air travel can complicate things. Does one check one's bag or bring into the cabin? If the cabin, then one is effectively on the search for a blade upon arrival as one cannot bring a blade into the cabin, which will be the case for me soon during a short trip.

My travel kit as shown was checked in travelling from the US to France, along with a couple of razors. It didn't take up a lot of space and didn't weigh all that much relative to the other items in my suitcase. But as with anything, it could be pared down further. It has served me well over the past two months though, in dealing with a chipped gift razor and sharpening chipped kitchen knives, pocket knives, etc., as much as any other set-up I've used, fixed, travel or otherwise. Just shaved off a beater razor fixed up with the set-up and the shave was phenomenal. Another 4-1/2 months to go with it.

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

Thanks for the enlargement. From the small pic, I thought the cover on the right might have been a small strop stretched across a hollowed piece of wood.

Edit: This does have me thinking about how "minimal" one could go, assuming that one was forced to deal with beater blades with chipped edges in the wild while travelling. Maybe a small extra-fine DMT and a small narrow coti, followed by a small narrow piece of leather stretched across a hollowed board would do the trick.

Really you can hone from scratch on a good Coticule. I often set the bevel and take all the progression on the single hone.

I find that it leaves a smoother shave, then any other combination. [emoji4] it just takes a little more time...


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Originally Posted by Kristian

Really you can hone from scratch on a good Coticule. I often set the bevel and take all the progression on the single hone.

I find that it leaves a smoother shave, then any other combination. [emoji4] it just takes a little more time...


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I can appreciate the expanded range that you are alluding to, but how do you define a good coticule in this purview? I have never attempted to hone from scratch, meaning the removal of naked-eye visible chips or to seriously reshape a bevel, with a coticule. And what steps, if any, are you taking to dress the coticule in question to achieve such ends?

There's also a question of time when traveling on vacation. As Kristian said, a good coticule can do a lot. But it isn't for me.

I used to take a laptop with Photoshop on it to process my vacation photos. It only took a day or two before I found that I didn't want to process my photos on vacation, I wanted to take more photos. And eat. And drink. And laugh with friends and see the sights, not sit in the hotel with my laptop.

Same with honing. I want to find more razors not spend an large amount of time in the hotel room honing one. So whatever I'm packing, it has to work reasonably quickly with edge kibbles and 'U' shaped bevels or I'll just hone the razor when I get back and my travel kit will look like my previous post.

IOW, if you give me a razor with a set bevel, I can put the finisher in my pocket.

Now if you are traveling by car for business and have time in the hotel, by all means throw the stuff in a Pelican case and hone on!

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

I can appreciate the expanded range that you are alluding to, but how do you define a good coticule in this purview? I have never attempted to hone from scratch, meaning the removal of naked-eye visible chips or to seriously reshape a bevel, with a coticule. And what steps, if any, are you taking to dress the coticule in question to achieve such ends?

Well I've tested the Coticule of cause. I've have around 25 and some are real fast. The one in the picture is medium slow, but leaves a good finish.

Do you mean how I perform a one hone progression?


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Originally Posted by Kristian

Do you mean how I perform a one hone progression?

Yes, sort of. Your one-stone progression interests me from the bevel set, so it would be interesting to know how this is done from your end. But I am also dealing with chipped blades in travelling, so how to deal with these with a one-stone progression as well?

Well not ideally. I have a La Veinette 20x5 cm bought from my visit to the Ardennes. Maurice showed it to me and it's the fastes coticule I have. It's at same level as my Naniwa pro 1K. But it's not the best finisher I have. You could easily set a bevel on a chipped razor with that. I sometimes do. But I never restore razors on holiday. I want the right tools in my workshop [emoji4]

I made a video on one hone progression on a coticule. But it's in danish and I can't find it right now because I'm on holiday, but I'll send it when I get home.


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