Hone Anxiety

Hello - I'm new to this forum, and am looking into making the leap into the world of Straight Razor Shaving. I have a pretty good handle on everything but the Hone.

I've been looking around to compare prices and am running into some seriouse confusion. With the exception of classicshaves I can't really get alot of details about the hones sold on other "shaving sites".

Here are a couple I have run across that seem reasonably priced, however I have no idea what the grit might be...

This is the Colonel Conk Razor Stone 5 1/4" Long Natural Arkansas at 16.00 I'm thinking nice....but what do I know :shrug:

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/st...html?s=cc110rs

These all see to be Surgical-fine Arkansas Razor Stone.

I wouldn't get the Col. Conk hone, and I like arkansas hones. Unfortunately "Surgical Arkansas" has absolutely no meaning for arkansas hones, it's purely a marketing term, I've seen that term bandied about for just about every grade of arkansas - the only arkansas stone I'd use for razors is the translucent arkansas stones.

The hone used by most is the Norton 4000/8000. It is the fastest cutting, easiest to clean and keep flat and has uniform grit size. It is a proven performer.Check www.classicshaving.com or www.theperfectedge.com (Howard) as suppliers.

MikeK,

I got the Colonel Conk hone as a cheap 'quick fix' when I dulled my razor from bad stropping. I spent several hours over a couple of days 'shaving water' from the hone, and still couldn't get the razor to where I wanted it to be. After adjusting my stropping technique and doing an uncountable number of passes on the linen and leather strops, I finally got an acceptable shave.

To make this bad situation better, mparker762 directed me to lap the Arkansas stone with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper before trying to use the hone again. Today I did this. It ended up taking two pieces of the sandpaper to get the pencil grid lines off the stone. Why? Because the stone was not flat. (I had a slurry going that would make the best honemeisters proud, even though it came from the stone itself.)

If I had it to do over again, I would have forgone the Colonel Conk hone and saved up for a 4k/8k Norton instead.

Mike,
I've helped a lot of folks get into straight razor shaving and honing and here's my advice. Buy quality razors, hones, and strops and you'll have positive experiences that will have you enjoy shaving. Quality costs more but it's a one time cost. I regularly have folks tell me they've bought half a dozen different stones and weren't happy until they bought one of the coticules. My suggestion: buy a belgian "bout" for $55 and you'll get to experience honing on belgian coticule. The stones are odd shaped and that's why they're cheaper. They're the same stone as the 8x3 belgians I sell but just not as big. You can still hone straights on them.

In many endeavors you won't get what you pay for but this is not one of them. The feel on your face of an ultra-badger brush is WAY different from a hog bristle brush and definitely more enjoyable. The temper and quality of a TI or Dovo blade is WAY different form a Pakistani blade which will make you disgusted with the tool. And a belgian coticule is WAY different from a Colonel Conk and you will be happy.