Thread: Only One Stone

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

If I recall Ron (utopian) did just that a barbers hone and strop for I think he said 10 years ,,
And once you learn to strop and shave well, a finisher once in a while will last a long time, if you damage an edge it's just cheaper to send it out. Unless your buying and restoring a bunch of razors. Tc

Yup. After about 5 years I found SRP and fell down a rabbit hole with a lot of other hones in it but I kept my original set of razors maintained with just a Swaty and Carborundum 102 for about 10 years. After that I DID reset the bevels and re-honed simply because I wondered if they would shave much better. They did shave a little better but it was not a huge difference. Of course it helped that I had been shaving with them for so long.

Anyway, the point is that you CAN get by just fine with a single maintenance hone. A decent barber hone can be had for cheap. A Naniwa 12k can do a better job than nearly all barber hones but it will cost you more.

One of the old timers here recently told me that just a couple of years ago, everyone here used the Norton 4K/8K stone, and nothing else. That says a lot!

But getting just a 12K makes sense, too, if you just want to freshen up your edges.

(oh, and I bought my first set of stones at the same time)

I initially bought the Norton 8k/4k and it was my only hone for a while. I did everything with that including restores. As I recall I next bought a Kitayama which was supposedly a 12K but was really more a 10k at best. probably after a couple years is when I started with pasted strops and started acquiring a few more hones.

Still using a Norton 4K/8K - Never had problems finishing razors on 8K.... so far... Bought a 1K when I started restoring razors.

What they all said or you can purchase one stone and use the method from the link below.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...lynn-glen.html

I'm pretty much in a similar situation with being a relative novice SR user. So far I've managed to maintain my edges just through stropping (I initially sent them out to be honed) but have now recently purchased a Shapton 12k to maintain the edges.

You can’t go wrong with a 4/8 Norton or a 12k super stone. Either of those stone will re-fresh your edges indefinitely.

We often talk about setting bevels and the minutia of honing, but really all you need is a good strop, learn to strop and maybe a finish stone of around 6-12K. Guys have been doing that for hundreds of years with all kinds of stones.

Paste can be a game changer, and can easily maintain an edge indefinitely, paste too has been around for a long time.

It is really pretty simple, learning to strop properly is the most important and difficult thing for most to learn. Find a local mentor and cut your learning curve considerably and maybe try a few stones before you buy.

You can ask yourself: what would great great Grandad do? Put as many greats in there as you need,
if he lived too far from a barber or couldn't afford one.

I have tried to picture our great, great Gran dads setting behind a covered wagon. Some one with one good stone and a razor. Stropping it on part of a saddle are the palm of their hand and shaving a bunch of hard heads in the wagon train.

To me this passage from Cormac McCarthy illustrates the baseline of simplicity in shaving with a straight razor:
From Outer Dark
published in 1968

"Further on he came to a board culvert through which a small branch sluiced with a cool sucking sound to cross beneath the road. He stood looking down at the water for a moment, then parted the ferns and went into the woods along the branch until he came to a pool. He knelt in the black sand and dipped and spread his hands very white in the clear water, framing his own listing image. From the bib of his overalls he fingered a small piece of soap and a razor in a homesewn leather sheath. He shucked off the straps of his overalls and took off his shirt and began to wash his arms and his chest. With the soap he made a thin and transient lather, honed the razor against the calf of his boot and shaved himself, studying his face in the water and feeling out stray patches of stubble with his fingers. When he had done he splashed water at his face and took up his shirt to dry with before donning it again. He wrapped the soap in a leaf and put it together with the razor in the bib pocket once more and combed his hair briefly with his fingers and rose."

Seems like the setting might have been rural 1930's. I don't actually recall.