Thread: Starting out with a finishing/refresher hone

If you're shooting for comfort I'd say the coticule is your best bet, a good combination of sharpness and smoothness. And it's so versatile that it could potentially be the only hone you'd need for a long time.

Coticule is probably the most versatile, but if you are set on the Norton I would pass the by on the coticule, its redundant, it wont give too much more than the Norton 8k(IMO). I would go for the Escher/thuringian after the norton 4/8 combo.BTW Escher is a brand name and thuringian is the type of stone. Eschers are Thuringian.

Strange because I saw somewhere in agreement with you, but saying that the Eschers come from a certain part of the quarry that's been exhausted. Well not really exhausted but the land its under is nature reserve so they can't mine it. Making Eschers rare. And are new Thuringens as good as old ones?

IMHO:

Coticule, smoothness 8/10, sharpness 6/10.

Chinese 12k, smoothness 6.5/10, sharpness 7.5/10.

Vintage thuringian and escher (same thing), smoothness 8/10, sharpness 7.5/10.

Coticule + chromium oxide paste, smoothness 8.5/10, sharpness 7/10.

Chinese 12k + chromium oxide paste, smoothness 7.5/10, sharpness 8/10.

Vintage thuringian/escher + chromium oxide paste, smoothness 8.5/10, sharpness 8.5/10.

This is defining smoothness as sort of the harshness of the blade on my face, and sharpness as how easily it slices through the whiskers.

I'm just pulling numbers out of my butt here based on how I feel about the finished edge and the shaves I've had off of the mentioned combos. This is by no means the end all, it's really just putting my feelings about the stones and combos into number form. Different folks will probably rate all of it very differently depending on their shaving technique and preferences and just their rating scale in general Take it for what it's worth... not much

With regard to eschers and vintage thuringians... they are the same. Several companies mined thuringian stones during that time frame, and escher was just one of them. Some people think they might have selected the best rocks to put their name on, and maybe in general that's even true, but of the few vintage thuringians I have, and the one escher, I can't tell any difference. I've heard that the new thuringians, while still good stones, are not as good as the vintage stones. I think a lot of the newer ones have inclusions, but a good vendor should weed those out for you. Even the ones without inclusions, from what I've heard, are, again, good finishing stones, but not *quite* as good as the vintage ones. I don't have one myself to verify.

Thanks! You rated exactly how I need it- smoothness on face versus how sharp it cuts whiskers. Looks like you think the coticule and thuringen are on the same level smoothness wise, but the thuringens are sharper. That helps. Thanks.

Originally Posted by khaos

Thanks! You rated exactly how I need it- smoothness on face versus how sharp it cuts whiskers. Looks like you think the coticule and thuringen are on the same level smoothness wise, but the thuringens are sharper. That helps. Thanks.

Yes, I do think that, but that doesn't tell the whole story. It then comes down to personal preference. Yes, I think the coticule is smooth, but I don't like the shaves off of it because I feel it needs to sharper. Ultimately, you probably need to try them all for yourself to know what your preferences are.

The Coticule is a very versatile hone. You can go with slurry then go to just using water and gain some more sharpness. I might add that if you were to make some paddle strops up with diamond pastes then finish with Chromium you will end up with a very sharp razor that is very smooth. I am not personally a big fan of shaving off a Coticule but some people like it. I have an extremely heavy beard and I just need the add sharpness that diamond pastes offer.

Take Care,
Richard