Thread: The cheapest edge, - the power of flat.

All of us are chasing the perfect edge. It’s the grail of honing, the magic of the craft. Most articles here refer to the magic hones of the past masters. The great yellow-green Escher, the Naniva Chosera, Cuticules and many more hones with mysterious names.

I’ve seen many articles of different honing methods. Pyramid systems, Dillicut ect.
When I read the forums, its clear to me, that most of the gurus here have dozens of different hones. I guess that collecting hones is a hobby to most hone-masters. However duzens of hones aren’t necessary to create the perfect edge. It’s possible using only a few hones. And these hones doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

In the old days, when men honed their own razors, they didn’t have dozens of hones. They had one, or two at the most. Even the barbers managed with a couple of hones.

I’ve seen post from many new members with frustrating cries, when the perfect edge eludes them. To many factors plays in, technique, skills, the razor, the hone, the shaving technique, the different test like the hanging hair test and so on.

The purpose of this post, is to gather advice on the simplest and cheapest way to obtain the perfect edge.
And this brings me to my own best advice. – The power of flat. I’m talking about the hone. It needs to be 100% flat. Any hone with even the smallest “bump” will destroy a edge.

Its all about lapping a hone perfect flat. To do this many uses special lapping plates with diamond. These plates aren’t cheap. Especially if you buy one, with a size, that is bigger than the hone. And this is, IMHO the key.

Now I don’t own a diamond plate. Instead I use glass paper with grit 400, on a completely flat surface. This is a cheap solution that has the advantage to give to a lapping plate, that is bigger than the hone, which make lapping easy.

I use a simple honing procedure from a book by Iwasaki. The book is about Kamisori razors, but I find it works perfect, when honing a straight razor.

Stages Hone Time Pressure
Course honing 1000 hone 3-4 min Use strong pressure
Middle honing 3000 hone 4-5 min Use moderate pressure
Finishing 8000 hone 5-6 min Use very light pressure
Edge finishing Coticule/Escher 10 min Use only the weight of the razor

Sometimes I use x-patterns, but most times I use a rolling x-strokes or circles. The table above refer to honing a doll razor. To maintain an edge I only use 5 min edge finishing.

I applied some pictures of my setup and now to the purpose of this post, the pictures of yours setup and your cheap advices!

Pictures show my cheap 1000/3000 combination hone, my king 8000, my coticule and two Eschers, a green and a black. Both acquired cheap at a flee market.