Thread: cheap hone for a beginner?

the cheap razor will shave but pulls and is very uncomfortable

Then stropping might be your answer. But you could try and get hold of a chinese 12K to polish your bevel... I don't think it's necessary, but the hone is pretty inexpensive.

If you are looking to maintain 2 razors only, get dia lapping film. A sheet of 3 micron(8k grit or so) and 1 micron(14k or so) and use a piece of granite tile cut for 5 bucks at home depot. This will allow you to touchup on the 1 micron and if that doesn't do it, use the 3 micron. Its less expensive and more versatile than a barbers hone if you take into consideration a used barbers may need lapping and then you need a lapping plate. I use hones, and they are better and less expensive in the long run as film does wear out. But if your only doing 2 blades, that may be a solution. You can also expand film easily for a few dollars and get courser film.

I picked up a 12k Chinese barbers hone from Whipped Dog and its doing the job for me right now. I get my razors professionally honed then just touch them up myself. Eventually I'll get more into honing and pick up more stones down the road.

I think everyone should have at least a combo stone 3k/8k naniwa or a 4k/8k norton it's not that much of an investment and it can pretty much get you by forever until you start getting fussy about finishing stones and what not. I started off with Naniwa 1k and 3/8k and that got me by until now but now I'm just wanting to learn more and more about all the different natural stones, it really fascinates me how a rock formed in the ground can have such wonderful sharpening properties, I've also gotten a Naniwa 5k to fit in to the 1 3 8 because I find it a lot easier moving from 3k to 5k then to 8k but many people get by on having just one or the other.

barber hones are a bit iffy in my opinion, a lot of the ones marketed as touch-up hones end up being quite coarse and then you have some real unknown gems out there too. I personally like to collect barber hones just for the sake of having them and I don't really use them though they are useful when travelling or something if you do need a quick touchup.

I don't think I could straight shave without honing. If you wanna do it then do it. Spend the money. That's my take on it. Obviously people should do whatever makes them comfortable. Once you have an adequate set of hones, then you have the tools to learn. YMMV.

While I think that lapping film is a great solution on the cheap, I recently picked up a largish coticule bout from The Superior Shave for not too much money with the idea of using it as a travel stone, and I think if I didn't already have a workshop full of sharpening stuff, I could make do with just that. For me, though, the real one-stone choice is a King Gold 8000 stone. I can make it do pretty much anything I want it to do, including bevel setting, but it's probably not a beginner's choice. Like a coticule, if you have a good strategy and experience (it's been my major stone for violin making for almost 30 years) you can do a whole lot with it that you shouldn't be able to do.