Thread: Essential number of hones

Just one thought: I had my Dovo carbon steel razor honed by SRD a couple of years ago, and since then I have kept it going (using it frequently) with the following equipment: a very fine Chinese water stone (finishing stone), a clean leather strop, a canvas strop, and a leather strop to which I apply some slurry from my Chinese stone (as a fine abrasive paste). That razor is actually even better now than when it arrived from SRD, but I have to admit that I am no good at setting bevels, so I'll leave that to the pros. But barring any accidents my razor seems to be able to go on indefinitely without any bevel setting.

Find a honing mentor and visit them. Words on this screen can be full of advice, but there is nothing like visiting someone and really learning. Chances are that if they have been honing for a while, they will have quite a few stones. Anyone can "read" how to hone and give advice on what they have read and interpreted, but a honing mentor can "show you the money".

With that being said, why don't you have your location in your general information? You can use a small town nearby if you are worried about identity theifs. If you are in the NE Texas/SE Oklahoma region, COME ON OVER!

Thanks for the replies

I narrowed it down to the Naniwa 3000/8000 combo vs the Norton 4000/8000 along with their respective lapping plates. I read the thread about shaving off a 1k so I assume either of my choices will leave a blade shave ready. From these two choices, which would you guys suggest? I am kind of leaning towards the Naniwa because of the 3k which will make beveling somewhat easier and it seems like a better grit combo but as a total novice to honing, I don't really know .

One more thing, kind of off topic, and I don't want to start another thread. I have a hanging Illinois leather/linen combo strop that is about 4 years old (back when I bought my razor) and was used for a few months and was stored for about 3 years without conditioning being applied . I don't remember its original condition but it seems kind of stiff with very very slight warping which causes the blade to get more contact in the middle. Middle of strop has more wear as well. Leather is not cracked though. Is this normal? Figured an X pattern will take care of that. The linen has a little more warping in the middle which kind of scares me to use because I have a feeling if I'm not stropping perfectly, the paste will round my edge.

The more hones the better, in my case at least. I like to experiment, and I enjoy honing and sharpening all kinds of stuff.so if the rock doesn't work too well on razors, it will work on something I need it for!

Norton4-8k is what I have and its perfect for me but 1 question I wanna ask is are you looking into ( or do you have) silversteel? If so keep in mind that silversteel takes a little while longer to hone because its a little harder than most carbon steel razors. And to give my 2 cents on your strop I would just go ahead and get some treating paste for the 1 you have and a lot of sand paper and a block of (as close to straight and flat) wood. Then staple sand paper to block of wood but only on the sides. And lap that strop and work your way up through grits. Id do both sides then crox 1 side. Throw away your warped fabric n buy annother. That bieng said my favorite strop is the 3 inch wide hanging bridal strop from SRD. In thinking about how how your strop is warped I dont think I would not use a strop with the center bieng warped out to u even with x or rolling x patern because bottom (or heel) wouldnt make consistent contact with strop. But I would recommend rolling x on everything thats good n flat.

Theese r just my opinions though, but good luck and have funn!

Maintaining one razor? Get the 4/8 and a dmt d8c. Later get a finer stone. You don't need a 1k stone for one razor.

I would upgrade the strop. A crap strop can really hinder your development. You need a great strop. I recommend a handmade strop like tony miller or srd.

Michael

I Yves had a boker hone paddle strop combo for a few months now and a razor that I thought was junk and likewise for the boker setup. But I was.using it for pocket knives and was impressed so I lapped the hone with 220 grit and 600grit sand paper dry. And soaked it with rem oil a couple times and the hone soaked it up until it started to puddle up then with very little puddle (just enuff to be able to see displacement in front of razor) then started with 15 sets of 30 circles then moderate pressure rolling x strokes 15 and 15 light pressure rolling x and 10 or 15 no pressure rolling x, finally 5 no pressure strop strokes on hone. Then 10 cromium oxide passes and finally stropped on regular strop 40 passes and it was popping hairs like it was a higher quality razor, I guess I'll find out in a few. Next time one of my good razors needs honing Imma try it out it impressed me. And it seems to b pretty hard producing virtually no slurry. IM kinda excited about the hone one never honed a razor start to finish on one hone before.

There are basically four stages of honing a razor.
Bevel-set, sharpening, polishing and finishing.

Now, for maintaining just one user, you do not need a whole slew of stones available.
If you take care of it, and address any loss of keenness as soon as it starts to develop, a simple barber hone or a 4/8 combo hone should last you a lifetime.

Those two mentioned hones, and a whole bunch of other similar ones will take care of your sharpening and polishing.
Finishing can be done on a pasted strop of some kind as an example.

If you get a ding in it or it gets completely dull, a 1K bevel setter would be the ticket.
Although a 4/8 will do the job too, for the patient honer

The Delhi actually was a comfortable 2 pass shave.