Newbie In Search of Honing Enlightenment

My first straight razor just arrived in the mail on Friday - a Thiers-Issard from Vintage Blades, LLC. It came honed to shave-readiness by Lynn Abrams. I'm trying to figure out what kind of stone I should get to to maintain the edge. A barber's hone? A Norton 4k/8k? I don't have an aspirations of restoring razors or anything like that. I just want to start good maintenance habits right out of the gate. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Also, do I need to oil my razor after each use? If so, what product(s) does the group recommend.

I use vasolene after I dry the blade. I am sure that most of the senior memebers will say a barbers hone should maintain your edge after stropping does not bring it back to shave ready as long as it does not get dinged on the sink or faucet or anything else that for whatever reason is magnetically attracted to the edge.

If you're talking strictly maintenance (i.e. you feel the edge is beginning to degrade and you just want to touch it up) then a barber's hone would make sense, imho. There is *plenty* of info in the forum here on barber hones and their use, so I'd suggest spending a bit of time using the search function and reading whatever comes up. In very general terms: less is more. Try a few very light strokes and test. Keep doing that until the edge is where you want it.

As for oiling, there's also a ton of info on that subject buried in the forum as well! I think a lot depends on the humidity where you live, where you store the blade(s), how good you are at keeping water away from the pivot/scales, etc. In short a lot of guys don't oil their razors, and a lot of guys swear on it and wouldn't dream of not oiling them.

Mineral oil, gun oil, eucalyptus oil seem to be the usual suspects in terms of which oil to use. There are also different approaches to application (ranging from your fingers to purpose-made applicators).

I'm afraid I can't offer much insight into the oiling thing as I'm one of those who don't oil the blade. But I'd never counsel anyone against it as it kind of makes sense.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Chugach68

I use vasolene after I dry the blade. I am sure that most of the senior memebers will say a barbers hone should maintain your edge after stropping does not bring it back to shave ready as long as it does not get dinged on the sink or faucet or anything else that for whatever reason is magnetically attracted to the edge.

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Absolutely right - if you need to repair damage, then the barber hone won't be the tool you want to reach for. For removing chips or other serious damage you'd want either a) send it to a pro or b) ~1000 or 4000 and plenty of time. :)

I might add that I use the hot towel I use on my face pre shave and drape it across the faucet. I also one or two the edge and corners of my sink that I use for wiping lather off my blade and it doubles as protection from dings. I dinged my very first razor on the faucet my third day in. I did about 2 strokes on my Norton 8k and stropped and it got it out but it could have been much worse. As for honing I don't have much to add except for light touch ups strop pastes can work well too. Some people here swear by them. I just got a 4 sided paddle with green, red, and black pastes. I want to try them and see how I like them compared to the hones.

Depends on your budget. Anything above 8k should be fine, synth and natural alike. Synthetics are much easier to use, and barber hones are low maintenance stones, so that would be a good choice. Other nice choices are Shapton 16k, Naniwa 10k-12k, and various naturals like thuris, eschers, coticules, C12k and others.