Newbie Looking to buy my first set of hones! Need advice!!

Hi guys Im a newbie SRS (about 10 shaves) and Up till now I've had a friend honing my razor for me. Im looking to buy my first hone set and I'm having a hard time figuring out what to get. Now I sharpen all my own knives and axes by hand so I understand the basic principals, and I have a 3 grit set for doing that. I've seen a lot online about only needing one hone to do your SR once you get good at it.

So here are my questions. Is a one stone hone hard to do for a beginner if I have some previous wet stone experience? If I wanted to only by one stone or two stones what grits should I look at? Is the Chinese hone combo kit you see on ebay every where (8k/12k) good enough to start with??

Thanks! I'm loving my new hobby

All you'll need is a Norton 4/8K and a finisher like the Nani 12K. But do not buy any stones yet! Get your technique down first, get your stropping down-pat, spend a couple of months learning, and then do your research on what you want for stones. Wait! Go slow and don't buy anything until you learn more.

I know, I got my friend to hone this razor after 10 shaves cause it wasnt honned great from the factory. Id like to have my own set for the next time it needs to be done. another 10-15 shaves? Its just theres so many theories out there

Why not talk to your friend and see what he uses and how?

He uses a 8k 12k synthetic, but other people say natural. Plus i only have one friend who SRS and there's thousands of people on here so I was looking for some different views? I say the vids on here from a few years ago about one stone honeing (8k i believe) as well? I dont want to end up with 8 different hones(even thoug im the kinda guy that prolly will lol)

If you want to get only one stone, I would say Norton 4K/8K. !! Look at gssixgun on you tube.

Cheers

The Norton 4/8 is all you really need. Everything else is lagniappe. If you get your razor honed properly though you shouldn't need to hone it again for a few months at least if you strop it and maintain it right. I would also either get your razor professionally honed (not saying your friend can't hone but you shouldn't need to hone it again after 10 shaves). OR send yours off to get professionally honed so you have a point of reference to what sharp REALLY is so you know what to shoot for.

he didnt do it the first time, it came "honned", he just touched it up for me so i guess well see now?

I dont know how experienced your friend is but a properly hone razor with good stropping should last a lot longer then 10 shaves. Also read in another post that you used CROX once in a while, you can maintain a shave ready razor with crox for months.

It came homed from the distributor, after ten times I got him to rehone it. He didnt do the original work, ive only shaved twice since he did it and its seems sharper then when i first got it. I should have been clearer!

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Originally Posted by dixon3162000

It came homed from the distributor, after ten times I got him to rehone it. He didnt do the original work, ive only shaved twice since he did it and its seems sharper then when i first got it. I should have been clearer!

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What kind of razor are we talking about here?

I dove right in when I started honing because I am just not a patient person.
I bought a Naniwa 12, 8, 5, 3K progression and a DMT225 for lapping them.

The set works wonderfully NOW. When I started I didn't know what I was doing. It took me roughly 6 months and about 40 razors before I was able to consistently get excellent edges. Now that my skills have caught up to my hones capability they are serving me well and will continue to do so for a long time.

Since then, I have honed with J-Nats, Coticules, barbers hones, various pastes, various synthetics. I have learned that they almost all work very well. Each one has it's own unique attributes though. Some are faster, smoother, harder, softer etc, and the only way to know which one you will like the best is to try them.

That's great if you know people with hones so that you can try it out first before buying. If you can't though, I would recommend buying the 'standard' starter hone, the Norton 4/8k or a Naniwa 3/8k. If you have some extra cash, buy a nice finishing stone as well. Your honing ability will catch up to the capability of your finishing stone eventually.

That's just my .02

Good luck,

Let us know what you decide!

I believe its a Graco hollow 3/8s And Im the same way once i have a hobby i want to figure out every little bit of it

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Originally Posted by dixon3162000

I believe its a Graco hollow 3/8s And Im the same way once i have a hobby i want to figure out every little bit of it

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I jumped right in too. I did not touch my new professionally honed blades to the stones though. I found some blades from ebay for around 20 and started that way. I use my ebay razors to practice on and leave my new ones to a professional.

So what i decided too do was this, and I'm a little ocd I like having long range plans!

By a fortune of luck my old man was going through some boxes and found his dads(My grandfathers) old straight razor. He has never used it so he gave it too me. So now I have two, I'm going to find someone local to get them both sharpened professionally and now that my stroping is slowly getting better, I hope to keep them going for at least 40-50 shaves each. Some where in that time I'm going to pick up a Nice new devo or something slick that catches my eye and a set of stones(Prolly the nor 4k/8k) then I'm going to put my grand dads and the new one into rotation and wreck the one that Ive been having problems with learning how to hone.

How much more difficult/what is the learning curve from knife sharpening to razor honing?

I think that is a good aproach. That is kind of what I did. That way if I screwed one up I wouldnt half to send it off and wait for it to come back. Plus you can take the old ones and hone them to the best of your ability and then dull it and start from the beginning.