Thread: Size of a Hone

hello there
i am new to the SR shaving and hadn't even had such a shave yet.
Despite reading that you shouldn't start it all at once i would like to get honing ready.
One reason is that my first razor is my fathers old one which he hasn't used for probably about 30years.
So i expect a pretty dull blade the good thing is it is a solingen blade.
Not to ruin this one and still having a good practice razor i got myself a wapienica.

to cut the chase i spent the last 3 days studying stones and honing but there is one question i couldn't quite solve.

Does size matter?

and i guess pocket sizes are out the picture.

just a minute ago i also read the honing for newbies entry by lynn and so i understand that i might need somebody to get my fathers blade shave ready to get an idea what that means.
so i'd also like ro ask if there is a honemeister around who is from england?

thank you for your help and sorry for all that beating around the bush
(or as we germans say talking around the pridge)

welcome

size depends if you are just going to sharpen your own blades doesn't matter.A good idea let someone hone your fathers razor and close place will be best shot from england i mean.for you to learn best hone will be norton 4/8k. Later on you can buy belgian escher etc.

For performing a good honing stroke with ease, a length of 8" would be advisable. For maintaining stability throughout the stroke, anything wider than 1"3/4 is good. Many 8" hones are 3" wide, which is fine.
That said, I hone often on shorter hones myself. 6" is still quite manageable, it just might take you a bit more practice.

The size of the hone makes no actual difference for the final outcome.

Best regards,
Bart.

i believe theinvisibleedge.co.uk is pretty much the only place you can get your razor honed in england. there was another member offering honing sometime ago, but i think he stopped.

Welcome to SRP ! Nice to have your father's razor and you are smart to have it expertly honed. I guess you know about the SRP Wiki and all of the resources within it.

I like an 6 or 8" long hone with 2 or 3" wide being fine. I have honed with smaller but as Bart said longer is better.

While it certainly is easier to hone with a wider and longer razor, years ago the only hones available were relatively short narrow barber hones. The Swatys are 2" by 5" and that represented the largest size of barber hone. It certainly is possible to hone on smaller hones, it simply is more of a challenge to keep the razor level when you are first learning to hone. For a chance to see honing on a narrow hone, LX Emergency did a great video of honing on a coticule bout.

Thank you all very much for your help that kind of relieved me a bit as i first thought bigger is better and so also more expensive. the video is quite a revelation as specially as he is using a very asymmetrical stone and still gets it right. well i guess the more you are trained the less you need to satisfy your needs if you have to. well i go ahead now and assemble myself a nice set of stones with ease at heart that i dont have to empty my pockets. i wont go for norton since they only do the big size(as far as i could find out) so i will
go for naniwa or the japanese king.
and thanks for the invisible edge info i will ask them for a quote.
cheers

The advantage to a hone that is on the narrow side is that it makes it possible to hone smiling razors easier. I have been finding that I am doing a lot of rolling X patterns and that would not be as necessary using a narrower hone. I just got a Coticle and it is 2 inches and things seem easier with that hone.


Later,
R

after i searched the internet for ggod offers on whetstones i stumbled across something else its
called micro-mesh which some some sort of sanding paper or soft pads with up to 12'000 grit size and they are very cheap. So did anybody experience those?
thanks.

by the way despite all my talk i did settle for norton at the end
i bought 2 stones one 220/1000 and one 4000/8000

Re micro mesh, even tho I don't know the specific product you are asking about, it seems that any "mesh" would be able to catch finer metal and rip it from your blade. This would probably not be good.