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Has anybody other than myself ever used or heard of a 'razor edge systems' hone before? Since the norton waterstones seem to be where the bar is set, could anybody tell me how they compare to the norton stones? They're certainly cheaper. And can anybody tell me if it's usually necessary to lap a shapton when you first get it?
got any links? I haven't, but that doesn't mean anything. :shrug: ;)
Yeah, that's John Juranich's company, he is credited with being one of the first guys to really study what the word "sharp" means.
His system is designed for knives, and does very well for them, but the hones are man-made and are not a specific grit, so I wouldn't recommend them for razor use.
internet glitch, duplicate post.
Thanks to the wonderful world of Google, I found this link.
If that's the one you are talking about, then I would say it is likely not of use for a razor. Despite the name, these hones are for knives so I would guess that they are not of sufficiently fine grit for honing razors. That's only my guess as there is no mention of grit in the hone descriptions.
Either Russel was too fast or I was too slow! In either case, trust him, not me--since he arrived at his conclusion from knowledge and I arrived at mine from guessing.
Well, I can't claim to have used those hones personally, but I've heard other guys in knife sharpening circles talk about their performance.
The bottom line is that they aren't fine enough, a knife requires much less care and precision to make a truly great edge than a razor does.
But that doesn't mean that they can't be used, many razors have to have a bevel formed on lower grit hones, you'd just have to get a finishing stone or pasted strop to refine the edge before trying to shave with it.
(I know John has that famous picture of him shaving with an axe that he sharpened, but that doesn't mean it was comfortable. I can get a blade to cut hair off a DMT 325, but that would destroy the average guy's face if he tried to shave with it. :gth)
As for the bar being set by the Norton's, I'd like to respectfully disagree. Many guys around here use them and seem to like they're performance, but I never found them to be anything special. A good Coticule (like the ones from theperfectedge.com) is really the way to go in my book.
Yes, those were the hones of which I speak. They are certainly not the last thing I would use before I go to the strop, as they are not polishing stones, but how do they compare to the lower grit norton stones?
I got one of their kits with a coarse and a fine hone years ago, when I embarked on my original quest for sharpness (knives and tools). This was long before my straight razor conversion. The razor edge hones are extremely hard. I lack the "tactile feedback" I get with water stones. They will give you very sharp knives, but I found them lacking "soul". For razor bevel setting I think the coarse stone is probably too coarse and scratchy, and the fine way too fine. I do my bevel setting with the 1k side of a Norton. You can probably get pretty far with the fine, but you will need an 8k or something to finish up.
Not long after getting the original kit I upgraded to some water stones (Norton 1k/4k, King 6k). The razor edge stones were retired and forgotten. A while back I had a thought. I kept reading about DMT's and lapping of hones. My HAD reared it's ugly head when I remembered I had this kit in the garage. The razor edge hones were given a new lease on life as lapping stones. The coarse one quickly grinds out uneven spots on both stones. The fine one does a very good job smoothing things out. When I started with straight razors I got a Chinese 12k from Woodcraft since the edge from the King 6k was not quite there. The smooth razor edge stone is a great slurry stone for both the 6k King and the 12k Chinese.