Thread: Inexpensive/creative honing?

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

The Arkansas Tri-Hone, is more than capable of honing a razor. I have 2, a vintage one, with a wooden base and 3 Ark stones, and a newer plastic base with, synthetic low grit, Ark Washita and Hard Black Ark Finisher.

I notice the new ones, have synthetic, low grit 3-400 stones, synthetic mid grit 5-600 and hard ark finisher. I would set the bevel on the mid grit and finish on the Ark.

There is much written on Arks and the finish of the stone, can be improved by finishing the Hard Ark stone, by burnishing. So, really, you already have all you need.

A while back, I did a one stone honing post, removing a chip and setting a bevel on a 12k super stone, in just a few minutes. I have done the same on a Norton and Chosera 8k. It not that difficult, or time consuming, modern synthetic are very aggressive.

If you are planning on honing you own razors, an investment of less than $100, will last a lifetime, and as said will make the learning process much easier.

Honing a razor, is about setting a bevel and polishing out the deep stria to straighten the edge. The trick is knowing when to move up in grits. Folks have maintained razors for hundreds of years with just a linen and leather strop.

12K Chip Removal.

Boushie, I think I bought one of your straights a while back. I thought it got sharp so fast cause I was just good, you've gone and ruined my day.

Many roads to Rome.

Take a look in the Library on Honing, most of those post were made in SRP early days, by old Hone Masters, way before the mass acceptance of Norton and Naniwa Pro and Super Stones. And many of the technoques would seem foreign to many now, but were common and accepted, back in the day. And still work, and well.

If looking for value, take a hard look at the Naniwa Traditional series, Lynn has a video on the Traditional 1k, sells for 30 bucks.

About two or three years ago, I bought pristine, matched pair of Ivory scaled, Sheffield, J. Pinder’s from an old guy who told me he honed them on an old worn Harbor Freight, diamond plate, finished on a Barber hone and stropped on cotton and leather belts.

Smoking keen and smooth shaving edge. Yes, many roads to Rome.

Though I do believe his hands may have had something to do with the edge he put on. Not a progression I would recommend with rare vintage razors, but…

Originally Posted by gcbryan

I'm wondering if any of you have managed to get an ebay straight shave ready without all of the usual expensive hones?

For the five years before I found SRP, I honed my razors with nothing but a Swaty and a Carborundum 102. I didn't know what I was doing but because I had a stereomicroscope I could see what I was doing to the edges, so eventually I figured out what I needed to do to make (relatively) decent shaving edges. After finding SRP I learned a lot more about honing and acquired a lot more hones. Because I have a scientific background I chose to maintain a control group, so I kept a set of 7 razors that I continued to maintain with nothing but those two hones.

Now, it's been 15 years that those 7 razors have been maintained with barber hones. They still shave just fine. In fact, they shave a lot better now than they did back then. Neither the hones nor the razors changed, but my ability to use them did. As I learned more about how to use my other hones, I learned more about how to use those barber hones.

Here is an example...
It used to take me several hours to get a razor to shave when honing it on a Swaty. I never considered that I could use heavy pressure and so it took me a very long time to set the bevel back when I did not know what that even meant. Now, with an average un-chipped razor, I can set a bevel on a Swaty in about 10 minutes and can have it shave ready a minute later. The point is, I finally learned how to make the best (as far as I know for now) use of the two first hones I ever used.

So, finally, here is the answer to your question...
Yes, you CAN manage to make a typical "ebay straight shave ready without all of the usual expensive hones." It requires a decent hone but more importantly, it takes the right experience and practice. It's more difficult to do it with just one hone, but it can be done. I have well over 400 hones, but all I really need are the first two hones that I ever bought.

You can buy yourself a decent barber hone, or a coticule, or a Naniwa Specialty 12k, or one of several other options, and with enough practice that can be all that you need.

I think at one time or another all of us were in the same boat making do with a few basic items.

When I started I had the Norton 4/8K combo and a Kitayama and that was it. Actually the Kitayama was added later so I did it all with just one and that includes Eboy specials. It took longer but in the end I learned more doing it that way.

I consider honing to be part of the overall experience of wet shaving, so I love collecting hones as many of you do. However when I first started, I was using SiC wet/dry sandpaper backed by granite.

P1500 grit sandpaper is similar to a Norton 1K, so it is suitable for setting a bevel. If there are chips in the blade that have to be removed, then you could go to lower grit sandpaper such as P800, P1000, or P1200, but do not go any lower than necessary to do the job. Removing scratches from lower grits is difficult. SiC is available all the way up to P2500, but you will probably have to go to an auto supply store to find it. P2500 is close to a Norton 2K. Beyond that this level, you will need to go to a stone or lapping film.

Let's see...it's hard to quantify what the 'cheapest' hone I've successfully use is.

I've done 1 hone bevel set to razor sharp on: Welsh slates, Chinese 12K, and Translucent Arkansas stones. I'm a bit of a skinflint, so even my 12"x3" translucent stone I've not paid more than $30 for (Before shipping is factored in). The only additional rock I need with those is maybe a piece of Coticule slurry stone, the garnets from coticule will help you cut a bevel surprisingly fast once they're cut loose from their binding. Still on the lookout for a $30 or less decent sized coticule so I can see what all the fuss is about!

An Arkansas 3 hone progression should sharpen anything you want to throw at it, particularly if the "fine" hone is a Surgical Black/True Hard/Translucent which they usually are. Those are what give you that trademark "Arkansas" edge after all. I'm a bit biased and would rather have a soft/hard/fine set that's all natural, but a higher grit synthetic can make a great bevel setter. So much the better imo.

I'm gonna go ahead and say the Chinese 12K ($25 before shipping), with a little chunk of coticule ($12 from SRD, before shipping), is probably the cheapest method I've used to take a razor from too dull to cut wet tissue paper, and make it sharp enough to shave comfortably off of.

Cheapest for general touch ups? Swaty barber hone that I paid $15 bucks for, shipping included. That or the American Hone Co. barber hone that came packaged with it, it was 30 for the pair shipped. The AHC is 2 sided, I have a feeling that in the hands of someone like Utopian, one side would be more than enough to set the bevel with a handful of swipes to make an edge shave ready on the other side. I'm still working it out, slowly but surely. Maybe I'll get there some day.

Now that I have all of my razors shaving sharp I'm realizing that unless (until) I buy more razors (I'm currently at 13) all that I really need to maintain is my Chinese 12k that was $15 since I got the quartered version from Whipped Dog.

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.