Thread: Inexpensive/creative honing?

Depends on the state of the ebay straight razor. Most of the ones I've encountered have had a few chips requiring more than just bevel-setting. So that needs to be factored into the equation as well.

A useful tool in this is a red-pasted Solingen loom strop: one side red paste, the other leather. That rules out any fetishistic finishing stone and leaves a more basic approach.

As said before, there are many roads to Rome. Assuming a water-stone progression, then a cheap one would be a Suehiro 1k/3k combo synth followed by an Inigo Jones dragon's tongue. That will put you in range of the red-pasted loom strop for a pittance.

That leaves the aggressive chip removal off the 'bay. Depends on whether or not you want to breadknife. If not, then a Beston 500 will do the trick. If so, then it's off to a 150 or 180 synthetic Omura. The latter is definitely a bench stone whereas the others may be placed upon a fully outstretched palm (avoid curling the fingertips along the sides!).

Oil-stones may result in a simpler progression in the end, as they respond more to variances in pressure. But that is another subject entirely.

Yes

If you look at my Youtube Channel and Lynn's Youtube channel you will find dozens of what we called One Stone Honing systems

Many of those I used a King 1k so people would understand that it could be done cheaply also

I have one with a King 1k and a Chinese PHIG.. Lynn has one with a 1k and a Barber's Hone and dozens of others



The other way is a Norton 4/8 or a Naniwa 3/8 you can get some serious work done with just those and some talent



That is where the rubber meets the road too, and why you won't find a ton of recommendations to learn this way, but if you know how to wield a hone well then yes you can do quite a bit on very few hones...

It can be done but it's a tough way to learn. Especially when you start talking about eBay razors. A good set of stones can last you a lifetime. Like you said, you can get a Norton or Naniwa combination for the same money you spent on the stones you now have. So we're no really talking about "inexpensive" honing. We're talking about honing with less then ideal stones. If you're serious about honing and on a budget, I'd recommend patiently saving until you can get a 3k/8k or 4K/8k combo. You can do a lot with one of those and when your budget allows, you can get a bevel good setter. Like Euclid said, they can be found for under $20.

Actually, I forgot that I do have a King 1000k waterstone. I didn't have it with the rest of my shaving stuff and didn't remember that until later.

I think the bottom line though is that if you only have one or two razors and just want to keep them shaving (as opposed to fixing ebay razors) a Whipped Dog 12k and a pasted paddle strop probably does that for a long time (along with a regular strop).

I was thinking more about what one could do as an experiment regardless of what hones you actually have. There's a YouTube video of a guy sharpening his knife on a brick even though he is a "knife guy" and has many actual hones.

I do all of my honing with a set of 1/4 nortons from whipped dog. I got them for Christmas last year, I think around $40?? Every now and then I do use lapping film 15 mic for bevel setting. I just did a 1in W&B on 15 mic film for the bevel then finished 4k 8k with my 1/4 nortons find out how well she shaves today You can certainly make do with what you have.

Real easy to do using lapping film. That's about as inexpensive as it get as far as I know.

Originally Posted by Wid

Real easy to do using lapping film. That's about as inexpensive as it get as far as I know.

There are a lot of posts about honing cheaply, but I haven't seen anything that beats lapping film price-wise, at least for a small numbers of razors.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by ejmolitor37

I do all of my honing with a set of 1/4 nortons from whipped dog. I got them for Christmas last year, I think around $40?? Every now and then I do use lapping film 15 mic for bevel setting. I just did a 1in W&B on 15 mic film for the bevel then finished 4k 8k with my 1/4 nortons find out how well she shaves today You can certainly make do with what you have.

Setting a bevel with lapping film? Interesting....I've seen first hand a member here who had some glass plates with the lapping film on them...put some uber scary sharp edges on the razors.

What lapping films are you using and sounds like it would be easy to take to much metal away....also, do you use tape to protect the spine.

Originally Posted by Phrank

Setting a bevel with lapping film? Interesting....I've seen first hand a member here who had some glass plates with the lapping film on them...put some uber scary sharp edges on the razors.

What lapping films are you using and sounds like it would be easy to take to much metal away....also, do you use tape to protect the spine.

Yea, all you need is a 1k stone, like a $20 King, or 1k Wet & Dry and 3um and 1um film 6-7k and 15-16k grit.

Film can be aggressive, but once on a flat substrate, works just like any other hone, except it will yield a very uniform stria pattern and super straight edge. You can go to .3um finish, but I find it too harsh.

1um with a piece of copy paper under the film, after 1um without paper will give a very comfortable edge.

The whole process is in the library. Tape the spine, just like a stone.

Film by the way is excellent for hard chippy razors, like Harts. I buy Aluminum Oxide film from Thorlabs. It is not expensive, comes in 9X11 in sheets and can be cut with a paper cutter into 9X3 pieces, comes out to about 50 cents per piece and a piece will hone 10-20 razors, depending on how much pressure is used.

Any 3X12 in tile can be used, glass or ceramic as a substrate.