Can I play with your synthetics? (in the Netherlands, The Hague)

Hi all,

I've been honing my own straights for about half a year and still manage to get only one razor up to very smooth and pretty sharp, the others give me a hard time. When I honed a (distant) friend's razor to the same sharpness, he said it still needed some work on the 8K and 12K.

I own a BBW, coticule and C12K and plan on buying a set of Shaptons, already have the 1K for proper bevels. I would very much like to borrow someone's synthetics in the 4K-16K region to have a feeling of how sharp and smooth a razor is after each stage. I think it will give me more insight in my natural honing technique as well as an idea on which Shapton I want to buy next (since money is a large object to me, I buy them separately).

Also, someone who can teach me personally how to use my naturals (since I think I got the theory right, but probably not the practice) is more than welcome. I am eager to learn!


Any and all advice are appreciated. As a sidenote, I travel for free from Monday to Friday with public transport.


Thank you, guys!

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If your friend is correct you didn't spend enough time on either your BBW or Coticule. A bit of slurry might also help.

Fine synthetic hones of quality are expensive so it may be hard to find someone who wants to lend them to you. I don't have any btw :)

A 400x USB microscope or a loupe could also help to see what's happening with your edges.

Unless you're planning to hone dozens of razors I would try a cheap solution first, more practise, slurry stones or microscope/loupe.

Thank you, Piet, for your reply. I should have mentioned that I use and dilute slurry and have tried circles, half-strokes and regular x-strokes, both pressured and without pressure, and I easily spend a few hours on one razor. I also have a jeweler's loupe which is a help, but I would really like someone to guide me through the honing, or have a go at some synthetics. I have the feeling my technique needs tuning, and I want to know more about synthetics.

I enjoy restoring and rescaling razors, very relaxing, although I do need a lot of practice there. I have a small pile of razors waiting for me and I intend to sell a few restored ones to make up for the costs I made. Apart from that, I like keeping the kitchen knives in good shape, so I think the Shaptons should be money well spent.

I love my Shaptons and wouldn't take for them... but, I found that the super stones do just as good at a much more reasonable price. IMO

straight razor designs had a special on a set that I got and am very happy with the results.
Stingray

I don't know where you can buy Shaptons but you can buy Super Stones and Choseras from a Dutch shop with free shipping.

My distant friend has a series of super stones, but he told me they wear out relatively quickly. I guess it's not much of a problem for razors, but I'm not sure about kitchen knives. For that reason I looked into the Choseras in the Dutch shop you mentioned, Piet, but the 10K is just too expensive for me and as far as I know, not the best finisher in terms of smoothness. The Shaptons seem like the ideal combination of hard-wearing and giving smooth edges.

And they look cool. It's not much of a reason, but I tend to buy things when they do :shrug:

I recently purchased the 4k, 8k, and 16k Shaptons and I couldn't be happier with them. They're a little spendy, but they're worth every cent. If you decide to get them, don't bother with the Shapton lapping plate. It's way too expensive, and a DMT325 will do the job just as well. If I was close enough, I'd definitely let you try mine out. My wife and I were in the Netherlands about a year ago, and we had a lot of fun there. Definitely a beautiful country.