Thread: Minimal and cheapest way to maintain an edge.

I believe I bought the last swaty.

Originally Posted by Kees

I am afraid Tilly is out of business (redtrader99).

Almost out of business. I just wrote her and she has a few lithide hones left. I think I will get both.

I got along for my first year or so with nothing but an old Norville Shapleigh razor hone.

If you are going to have someone else do the initial honing as you say, you can easily get by with an inexpensive barber's hone.

like this

Just an idea. Pinnacle Honing Guide - Woodcraft.com

You could get the assortment pack . 15, 5 and .3 micron sharpening film and a piece of glass maybe 10 bucks in all.

I use the 5 and .3 in my ultralight travel kit. They also have a leather strop kit and handy size pieces of hardwood to make a paddle

Just got a few of the last hones Tilly have.

A small one and a larger one for 16$ delivered. Since both seem to be in the same material, I guess I could lap them with each other.

Originally Posted by cybrok

A small one and a larger one for 16$ delivered. Since both seem to be in the same material, I guess I could lap them with each other.

Unless you are willing to spring for a lapping stone you will need to use sandpaper on a piece of glass or stone tile to lap your barber hones. If you lap them against each other all you will do is wear out your hones without getting either on of them really flat. To clean up a stone that is worn you need to lap using something that is flatter than the stone in question. A diamond plate of some kind, ie: DMT or Shapton is ideal, but will sprain your budget somewhat (a lot in the case of the Shapton).

Lapping is necessary, but you will probably not have to do it very often as the barber hones are quite hard and generally only used for keeping a razor at an acceptable level of sharpness or for touching up a razor that is "almost there".

Do Tilly's hones usually need a lot of lapping?

What sandpaper grit should I use to get a decent surface?


OR I could bring them to college and use the lapping tables they use to prepare metallographies.

Some new hones need lapping because of a less than perfectly flat surface. For Thuringians which are soft I use 200 followed by 400 grit. However if one needs a lot of work I occasionally start with very coarse cheap and cheerful sandpaper without a declaration of grit size. As soon as I see it is almost there I switch to finer grit.

The barber hones from Tilly would work better if lapped flat but you can use them as is. The only thing you really need to do is to sand the edges down a bit. A sharp edge on a hone is a bad thing for a razor.
Be aware that barber hones are very hard and you would be going thru a lot of coarse sandpaper to get them flat.

Your best bet to maintain an edge is the abrasive pasted paddle strop that was mentioned before. Once that starts to fail then go back to the barber hone.

So, lets continue the conversation.

For touch ups, what is better of the 3. A coticule, a norton 8000 or a chinese 12 000?