To maintain your personal daily shave razor(s), you eventually need a hone. Since stones are relatively expensive, what grit (or combo) would you buy if you only had money for one? E.g., for $60 would you buy a 1000/6000 Norton or a 10,000 Ice Bear?
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To maintain your personal daily shave razor(s), you eventually need a hone. Since stones are relatively expensive, what grit (or combo) would you buy if you only had money for one? E.g., for $60 would you buy a 1000/6000 Norton or a 10,000 Ice Bear?
Stones are used to 1) touch-up, and 2) repair. You *need* two grits in the long haul to satisfy each function.
The cheapest new solution would be a combination barber hone in the Swaty style, about 2"x5" roughly. On eBay, these come up all the time. The 'dubl duck' vintage ones are my favorites. One coarser gray side to establish the edge or repair a minor nick, then the smoother reddish side to polish and re-establish a slightly dull edge with a mild abrasive action. About $25-$30 for a good example ....
To some extent, paste strops can return a dullish edge that doesn't respond to plain-leather stroping. But a paste strop is *not* going to repair a ding, unless its motor-driven at the command of an expert (e.g. a belt sander/polisher).
So, forced to choose only one grit, go with the coarser stone and paste strops for economy.
That said, the 4k/8k waterstone is a superb fixall combination stone in the mid-range, about $70 in a three-inch width. Some of us couldn't decide, so we bought them all, LOL
I have a "Master Barber" hone in this style, and it has become my favorite. I keep it in the bathroom for quick touch-ups, but use it for regular honing, too.Quote:
Originally Posted by uthed
Yup. Norton 4k/8k for sitting down at the kitchen table for a real honing session, barber hones for maintaining an edge and for touch-ups.Quote:
Originally Posted by uthed
Thinking about the Belgians recently, as well.... like I need more hones. LOL
Parry
For the least expensive route I would buy a sheet of 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper to remove the nicks. This is equal to a 4000 Japanese or Norton 4000. Cost $1. I would then purchase a quality classic barber hone, a combination one if possible so as to have more flexibility to act as a 6000/8000 stone. After that I would take a piece of vinyl and put dry .5 micron chrome oxide on it to act as a finishing step. This is a really inexpensive way to go but using the classic barber hones does take a bit of practice and they are slow.
For simplicity I prefer the 3" Norton 4000/8000 combo hone. If I need something coarser then use sandpaper. Its cheap and cuts much faster than the hones. The finishing step is .5 micron chrome oxide either dry or in a paste form preferably on leather glued/pressed to a flat substrate.
Just my cheap $.02,
An interesting question Azjoe. I concur with Dave, that you need at least two hones for maintenance. For restoration work, you could possibly get by with one more, a coarse grit hone.
In terms of price, barber hones are certainly the least expensive, at least that's the case at the moment. You can get some very good buys on ebay, or you can pay a little more and purchase NOS barber hones directly from Tilly. For maintaining an edge I'd recommend two: Honemaster (fine) and an Amalgamite (medium) hone. These high quality hones can both be purchased NOS for less than 40.00 USD. (The itsapeech (fine) hone is my favorite and highly sought after, but alas, I recently noticed that her remaining NOS is now listed at 45.00 USD!).
If you use pastes, you could manage with one med/fine hone like a Amalgamite, C-mon or Wester Bros. I believe this was the trend during the last years of the straight razor era. The popular use of pastes reduced the need for fine grit hones. For general maintenance, a med-fine hone was sufficient when used in conjunction with a pasted strop.
Hal
No doubt for me the 3" Norton 4k/8k. I would like a finer grade but have to wait $$$$$$. :shock:
If limited to only one stone for honing, I think it would flat out be a Belgian 8 x 3 stone. You can really do anything with this single stone, it cuts blazingly fast, is 8000 grit so fine for a final polish, doesn't have to be soaked. You could do restoration on it, but it would be a bit time consuming but more importantly, you would use up a lot of an expensive stone. It uses water, wich is always available and doesn't leave an oily mess when finished. After use, just strop and then shave. Pure simplicty.
Except for how to come up with the long cash to pay for the stone initially.
The esthetics of the stone are simply inspiring!
As for the barber hones....does anyone have any information of the internal makeup of these stones? What abrasives were used, and is it in ceramic or clay base? Chromium oxide, or some other abrasive ingredient? Would love to find out.
Bob
Regarding the composition of the classic barber hones. No one seems to know. According to one post that I read on the Knifeforums the recipes do still exist for the hones made by the American Hone company and the price is $6000. However Tilly, Anton & Diana Till, who have purchased the inventory of the American hone Company disputes this. She has said that the recipes do not exist. However, it is also said that after the woman who made the hones passed away some years ago, an attempot was made by others but there was no written record of the PROCESS used. So all attempts to make hones at that comapny have failed. Would you suspect that they were working from a recipe or winging it?
Just some trivia,
You can read the story about the recipe lady here: http://tinyurl.com/b5aydQuote:
Originally Posted by randydance062449
Thanks David
I have a 2 X 6 Belgian yellow coticule stone and it's a really nice hone. Looks beautiful too. It might also be my first choice. However, for general maintenance, I'm still quite partial to my collection of Swaty type hones, particularly the Apart.
Hal