Thread: Inexpensive/creative honing?

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

I've done it (kind of) and don't necessarily recommend it but it's an interesting topic/concept to me anyway. What I'm really curious about is if some of you with a lot of honing experience (and a lot of expensive hones) have tried to get a beater straight razor shave ready using minimal equipment or even odd ball methods?

I have tri hone arkansas stones for knives. It was around $20. The rough stone is synthetic and the medium and fine stone are supposedly arkansas stones.

I have two water stone slip stones (about $25 each) that are 4000 and 8000 grit and I have one of Whipped Dogs quarter stone Chinese 12K for $15 or whatever he sells them for. I also have a paddle strop with green paste and a regular leather strop.

That's about $85 spent altogether. Of course you could probably get a Norton 4000/8000 for that. Used at least.

Anyway, none of it is very easy to use as the two slip stones are small as is the 12k and with the Arkansas stones you are going from oil to water. It's what I had and I made it work and I didn't intend to have many straights in the first place.

Some of my earlier ebay purchases had small pitting on the blade edge so any rough hone could be used to file that down I suppose. After the bevel is set any fine stone could probably make it shave worthy presumably and with some stropping somewhat smooth.

Have any of you, for the challenge, tried to take a beater and see what the least honing would be to be able to shave with it.?

Could it be done with just a 1k and a 12k? What did rural people do back in the day? I have to imagine that they just used one stone and a strop?

I am retired and on a limited budget. I have a diamond hone from harbor freight. A Japanese water stone (6k) about $60 and a (12k) oil stone about $30.

I set the bevel on diamond hone then 6k until edge is polished. Now 12k and finish on a sheet oh 1/2" glass. Finally strop on canvas with paste then leather. Sell my razors on eBay and my customers are very satisfied. So are my customers from my honeing business.

Yup, many roads to Rome.

Arks have been used for hundreds of years, and a 2 or 3 stone progression can deliver a smoking edge.

A new King 1k, is $18, and I have bought them used for as little as 2 bucks.

Really, all you need is a low grit stone to set the bevel, and a finisher, though a mid-grit stone will save you some time.

Or a King 1k, and lapping film, about $35-50.

A lot will depend on your skills.

I'm sure there are many ways to do this. One idea is say a king 1000 as a bevel setter or norton 1000 both are rather inexpensive. Once bevel is set you could use a dovo paste progression on a home made canvas strop stuck to a piece of wood or whatever. So Dovo green paste is 6 micron then use the Dovo/Herold red paste 3 micron then some chromium oxide to finish and you would have a shave ready razor. Another way is to get lapping film and get a few sheets, they come in all sorts of grits and a piece of float glass or granite tile from lowes / home depot to mount it on with water and hone it up. Just a couple of ideas with easy to get and pretty cheap materials.

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.

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.