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.