Thread: If you could only buy one...

Hey just started honing my own razors and right now I am getting a decent edge from my Naniwa 4k/8k stone especially after I finish with CrO paste. However it is still grabbing and not as smooth as I know it can be. I think I want to buy another stone but with finances as they are I can only get one good stone. Right now I am looking at either 1) Zulu Grey stone from South Africa or 2) a 12k or 16k synthetic hone. Any suggestions?

If it's still grabbing and pulling after crox and stropping, I doubt it's the stones. Make sure you lapped them completely flat. If you are using them to set bevels as well, the bevel is more than likely not completely set. If you are just resharpening/touching up the blades, you could be doing too much or not enough work on the stones. I still use the numbers to keep track of how much work I'm doing, but make sure to use the TPT and test the edge after the bevel setting and 4k to make sure the edge is still holding, then move to your 8k w/ just x strokes for about 20-30 laps, then no more than 10 or 15 laps on the crox. If you're doing 30, 40, or 50 laps on the pastes you could be rolling the edge or creating a bur and not realize it. Hope that helps.

A recommendation..hmm...I recommend not buying any other stone. Then again, I bought all of them so....

You don't need a new finisher, what you need is a bevel setter. Buy a naniwa chosera 1k. If the strop is correctly pasted, and you have a 4k-8k (or 3k-8k), you don't need a new finisher.

Originally Posted by Vasilis

You don't need a new finisher, what you need is a bevel setter. Buy a naniwa chosera 1k. If the strop is correctly pasted, and you have a 4k-8k (or 3k-8k), you don't need a new finisher.

I agree. For awhile there I wasn't getting good shaves after coming off of my 8k, and I was convinced that I needed something higher in grit to "fine-tune" the edge...I was wrong!!

The truth is, you should be able to shave off of 8k, provided your bevel is set properly. Do yourself a favor and go get a Chosera or King (what I use) 1k...you'll be glad you got that instead of a finisher, trust me!! Like gssixgun says, 90% of honing a razor is bevel-setting.....(or something to that effect)

Is your razor stainless or carbon steel? if it's carbon steel, I would probably get the zulu instead. You can shave right off of the good naturals with great keenness and no irritation (jnats, eschers and probably the zulu (i also ordered one)), but from what I can tell so far, stainless will prefer the finest synthetics as a matter of practice, with the chromium oxide as the last step.

I have the shapton 15k, and I just don't like it that much for razors. It is a fantastic tool hone, but it seems like it does odd things with my razors sometimes. I'd go the naniwa 12k or sigma power 13k if I were trying to top out on synthetics but also not breaking the bank.

That's not to say you can't finish a stainless steel razor with a natural stone, you can, but the composition of the carbon steels provide fewer carbides (near zero) that are harder than the abrasive. Presumably the stainless has a lot of chromium carbides, even if they are made smaller and more uniform by cryogenic treatment.

All that said, if you avoid heavily pasted strops and don't alter the geometry, it probably doesn't matter too much what you do, because once your razor is in shape, you'll not have to remove much metal to keep it there.

As have been said above, getting a finer hone at this stage is perhaps not the right way.
With that I mean that you really should get a great shave off of what you already have.

That said, as far as finishers go, there are tons of them out there.

Naniwa SS12K, Chosera 10K, Sigma select 13K, Shapton 12/15/30K pro and Glass to name a few.
All of them stellar hones.
If you want to reach up to that very top shelf though, a good JNat, a Charnley Forest, an Escher or a Suehiro Gokumyo 20K is where you could look
(these puppies are expensive though, and truly not needed for a good shave)

Thanks for the replies everyone. Stones have been copiously lapped starting at 220 grit and incrementally stepped up to 1200 grit sandpaper on glass. The razor is carbon steel i believe. Just to note I am getting good shaves from the current stones, just not the buttery smooth or effortless shaves I have had in the past. This weekend I'll put some more time into the 3k and see if I can set the bevel better this time around and if not then I'll look into the 1k stones and see if that helps overall.

Originally Posted by regularjoe

A recommendation..hmm...I recommend not buying any other stone. Then again, I bought all of them so....

I would argee with this. But some how i going to end up buying more.
every time i do i say this would be the last one.

When you are considering the purchase of a bevel setter vs a finishing stone you should factor in cost, since it sounds like you are trying to respect a budget. A synthetic 1 or 2 K from Naniwa or Shapton will set you back $35-$65. A 12 or 16K stone is probably at least twice that. The more exotic finishers start at "expensive" and go up from there.

If it were my decision I would pick up a synthetic bevel setter next and plan on buying a higher grit finisher as the budget allows and your personal taste gets more defined.