Thread: What to buy and when to hone?

Dear Fellow Razorheads-Have a Chromium oxide coated Balsa strop, along with a nice linen backed Russian Leather strop incoming. Will have 8 razors to rotate, and was told to rotate one razor/week. I do realize that I will have to do a mild hone on the balsa strop when the blade starts to pull, but am wondering when I need to buy a Norton 4K/8K wet stone and start honing. I do realize that I can oversharpen with my Balsa strop and do not want to do that nor ruin the bevel or edge on my razors. I have viewed several mnt. videos and have cases for ALL of my razors. Although I have sharpened machetes, scissors and knives, I do realize that razors are an entirely different technology. Appreciate any detailed feedback on this and stropping. I will continue to read the beginners tips and stickies-Gearhead222

I'm no expert but with that set up you can keep those razors going for a long time without touching a stone. When the razor starts to pull give it 5-10 laps on the Chromium Oxide, 50 laps on the linen and 100 laps on leather. You should really focus on shaving and stropping right now. I think stropping is very important and you should be doing around 30 laps on linen and about 60 on leather before each shave.

As for stones, it depends on what kind of "user" you are going to be. An "End User" isn't really interested in learning to hone. They just need something to touch up razors and sends it out to a pro when the finishing stone doesn't work anymore. If that's you the a Naniwa 12k , Shapton 16k or even a barber's Hone is all you need. You should use a finishing stone when the Chromium Oxide isn't enough to bring your edge back.

If you really want to learn how to hone, once again I want to say i'm no expert, a Norton 4/8k is a good place to start. Most say you should learn how to get a good shaving edge off a Norton 4/8k before getting other stones. Some say that's all you really need but I think a finishing stone is important to have. You could also get a Naniwa 3/8k stone for about $10 more. I don't have a Norton but I do have some Naniwa SS and I really like them a lot. I hope that helps and I'm sure the more experience guys will give you better advice.

Dear Mr. Cavazos-Thanx for the very detailed and quick reply! Funny, but the razor is not pulling on my arm-it's just not shaving! I will try to do the least amount needed to get her going. Will try 20 strops on the leather followed by 20 on the linen strop. If that doesn't work, then I will try 5 complete strops on the Balsa Chromium Oxide strop, per good old honemeister Max! If that doesn't work, then I will buy a Norton 4/8K whetstone with a Norten flattening stone, as the whole rig on Amazon is only $89.00-Gearhead222

Assuming you bought a shave ready razor from good old honemiester Max. Then the solution will not be
a stone. Re-examine your shaving technique.

Are you saying the razor isn't shaving your arm hair? Did you buy "shave ready" razors? If not, get them honed by a pro. If you did buy them shave ready, did you strop the razor before you shaved? You might have used too much pressure and rolled the edge. Instead of buying the Norton flattening stone you should buy a DMT 325, that's what most people use around here.

Use the linen side first then the leather side. 30 on linen and 60 on leather is a good place to start.

I did not buy it as a shave ready razor. It was advertised as like new and it is. Edge is unblemished, but will not shave. Needs honing and stropping. Please explain what a DMT 325 is ,okay? I understand that the Balsa strop with Chromium Oxide is a great tool to perform light honing, but am guessing that a razor that has NEVER beem honed out of the box will need a professional honing, correct?-Gearhead222

It's a Dovo half ground 5/8 razor. Sending it in to Herr Sprecher. Thanx for the DMT link? So this replaces a Norten 4000/8000?-Gearhead

Originally Posted by gearhead222

It's a Dovo half ground 5/8 razor. Sending it in to Herr Sprecher. Thanx for the DMT link? So this replaces a Norten 4000/8000?-Gearhead

No! It replaces the Norton lapping stone. The DMT will lap all of your stones and never require lapping itself. It'll last a long, long time!
Dovo is a good razor. I was afraid you might have got one of the "pretend to be" razors off eBay.

Your razor will definitely come back shave ready. Remember, don't strop or anything before you use it the first Time!!

Howard

If you have the money start whenever you want. If your razors are coming professionally honed and you will only use one a week in your rotation you probably won't need to use your pasted strop for a long time, much less a stone. I have a razor I bought new over a month ago and it is still shaving nicely with no pull and I used it every day until a week ago when I got a new one. You really shouldn't need a stone for a long while. If you just want to get one and learn to hone (like I did) I would suggest looking at a ton of videos by gssixgun and lynn. They break it down for you real well. I bought a Norton 220/1k,, a Norton 4k/8k, and a japanese natural finishing stone. I have been practicing on older ebay razors and stuff I have picked up at antique shops. I was finally able to get an edge shave ready about an hour ago thanks to Lynn and gssixguns videos and advice.

I'd rotate the razors over a week, using a different one each day rather than using one for an entire week. Mainly just because I find it more interesting. You can shave straight off the Norton 8k; in fact you can shave straight off the 4 (though I've only shaved off the 8 myself) so really having just a Norton 4/8 would work. I have the Norton 4/8 and the Norton lapping stone; I find the Norton lapping stone works OK for me. I also have a Shapton 16k; which is what I normally sue to touch up my razors (10 laps). I guess I use the Shapton as a barber's hone. If I'm bored and think the razor needs it I'll use the Norton and the Shapton. I might do a pyramid on the Norton (20 5, 15 5, 10, 5 all the way to 1 5) and then 20 on the Shapton. In the past I've done 20 20, 19 20, 18 20, 17 20 etc all the way to 1 20 which was a bit over the top in hindsight. I'm still learning so I practice and experiment. The JANorton thread is a great one to look up. Thinking about that now, I wonder if we'll do that again this year? It was a great learning experience and gave me something to do over the hols. We might have enough new members to benefit.