Thread: Overloaded by information!! Need advice

Hi guys!!


It's been a week reading this forum about honing, razors, coticules and stones. Previous to this week I had absolutely no idea how this world could be so vast and complicated.

The thing is that I own a straight razor that now needs honing. I cannot shave anymore without suffering quite a bit and cutting myself.

As I said, I've read a lot of posts here, and I am completely overloaded with the information I got that now I cannot decide what's best for me.

For starters I let you know that my idea is not to spent much money on the hone(s). And after much inner discussion with myself, I ended up with 2 options.

1.- Buy a Norton starting kit 220/1000 and 4000/8000.
Good thing about this set is that I have almost all the range (maybe I'll lack a finish stone?) and I will get as well a grip for the hone (safety is always good)

2.- Buy a Yellow Coticule and a coticule stone.
Good thing is that I will have a very good natural stone. My idea was to use it with slurry for getting the razor into shape and the just water for the polish (if I understood well Bart's post about yellow coticule honing). And from what I have read, the finish result is better than the Norton 8000.


Both sets are almost the same price (on eBay) and I really can´t decide which set to get.
I know some of you will say "get the Norton and later on move to the Coticule". I don´t want to buy stones that later on I will not be using. I prefer to spent few dollars in cheap razors than 130$ in a new hone. Please just correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for your advice!!

Just IMHO I would recommend the Norton set. SRP founder Lynn Abrams learned on those and wore out a half dozen on the 4k side in honing thousands of razors. At one time the 8k was as good as it got and that ain't half bad.

I would recommend getting one razor professionally honed which would give you something decent to shave with as well as a benchmark to gauge you own efforts in learning to hone with the Nortons. If you follow the instructions in the pyramid honing guide here you should do fine. If at a later date you've learned honing to your satisfaction then moving on to coticules or other finishers would be cool.

In the meantime the Nortons and maybe some chrome ox on balsa or felt would be my recommendation.

+1 on what Jimmy said. There are a few other questions that need to be answered first though. What razor do you have, and where did you get it? Was it shave ready when you bought it? How long have you been using it, and approx. how many shaves have you gotten out of it? Do you have a strop, and do you know how to use it properly? I am asking these questions so that we can make a better recommendation for you.

Ray

Since you mention not wanting to spend much on hones:

3. Send the razor to a honemeister and buy a barber hone/pasted strop

A) $15-$20 for a professional honing.
B) $15-$30 for a barber hone for touchups when the razor starts to pull.
1. Create a pasted strop to use alone on in addition to barber hone.
C) repeat process A when B no longer gives satisfactory results.

Originally Posted by Hammett

Hi guys!!


It's been a week reading this forum about honing, razors, coticules and stones. Previous to this week I had absolutely no idea how this world could be so vast and complicated.

The thing is that I own a straight razor that now needs honing. I cannot shave anymore without suffering quite a bit and cutting myself.

As I said, I've read a lot of posts here, and I am completely overloaded with the information I got that now I cannot decide what's best for me.

For starters I let you know that my idea is not to spent much money on the hone(s). And after much inner discussion with myself, I ended up with 2 options.

1.- Buy a Norton starting kit 220/1000 and 4000/8000.
Good thing about this set is that I have almost all the range (maybe I'll lack a finish stone?) and I will get as well a grip for the hone (safety is always good)

2.- Buy a Yellow Coticule and a coticule stone.
Good thing is that I will have a very good natural stone. My idea was to use it with slurry for getting the razor into shape and the just water for the polish (if I understood well Bart's post about yellow coticule honing). And from what I have read, the finish result is better than the Norton 8000.


Both sets are almost the same price (on eBay) and I really can´t decide which set to get.
I know some of you will say "get the Norton and later on move to the Coticule". I don´t want to buy stones that later on I will not be using. I prefer to spent few dollars in cheap razors than 130$ in a new hone. Please just correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for your advice!!

Welcome to SRP Hammet! You mentioned that you have a straight razor that now needs honing. Are you planning on buying a lot more straight razors? If the answer is yes than get yourself a nice set of hones and go from there. The Norton hones will give you a more repeatable result for a newbie and the coticule can be added later on.

If you do not plan on buying lots more straight razors and you have been using the one you have for a long time I would suggest just sending the razor to a honemister listed in the classified section and just getting a barbers hone to 'touch up' the edge every few months.

Good luck!

Hello and welcome to SRP. I myself am still quite new here so take what I can give for what it is. Most will tell you 1 razor is not enough you need at least 2 for this reason. There are those here who are true Honemeister's who can sharpen your's fairly quick. You can find a list in the classifieds. I have Shapton stones (1K - 16K) which do a great job (for a beginner) but before that I was just using a Barber's Hone for touch up. You may want to consider a professional sharpening and find a good finishing hone and work on getting the others later. Again welcome and I'm sure you'll see better answers shortly.

Thanks for all the answers!

One added problem is where I live. I live in Dublin, and there are not many honemeisters around (I've checked a couple of barber shops and they don't know any). And there are not many places where I can get hones and a reasonably price. Those imported from the US are very expensive due to shipping, and some companies (such as Amazon) do not ship that item outside US.

I only have one razor, bought it shave ready (or at least I could shave with it, really cannot tell which is the "shave ready" standard) in a local store. The brand is Kedake (never heard of it). I don't think is a good razor, and being my first razor I didn't want to spent a lot of money with that and then destroying it in the process of honing. I usually shave once or twice a week, and I have been using it for 6 months already (sorry, no strop but I know how to use it)

My idea was to get 2/3 razors and learn to hone with the "bad" one. Then move to better razors as my experience grows as well.

I see most of you do recommend a honemeister (which unfortunatelly is not a valid option in Dublin), and then get the Norton and move on to Yellow Coticule.
Is the coticule far more complicated to master than the Norton? If so, why?

Thanks again

A strop should be your first priority.

I couldnt find much info on kedake other than this: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ake-razor.html

But in short.... If i were you.....

1) Buy a strop
2) Buy a 2nd razor, shave ready.
a) look at the SRP Classifieds. Also..since you are in the UK... Introduction to razors
Some of the UK members of SRP should have more too add...

Originally Posted by Hammett

Thanks for all the answers!

One added problem is where I live. I live in Dublin, and there are not many honemeisters around (I've checked a couple of barber shops and they don't know any). And there are not many places where I can get hones and a reasonably price. Those imported from the US are very expensive due to shipping, and some companies (such as Amazon) do not ship that item outside US.

I only have one razor, bought it shave ready (or at least I could shave with it, really cannot tell which is the "shave ready" standard) in a local store. The brand is Kedake (never heard of it). I don't think is a good razor, and being my first razor I didn't want to spent a lot of money with that and then destroying it in the process of honing. I usually shave once or twice a week, and I have been using it for 6 months already (sorry, no strop but I know how to use it)

My idea was to get 2/3 razors and learn to hone with the "bad" one. Then move to better razors as my experience grows as well.

I see most of you do recommend a honemeister (which unfortunatelly is not a valid option in Dublin), and then get the Norton and move on to Yellow Coticule.
Is the coticule far more complicated to master than the Norton? If so, why?

Thanks again

Try and see if our member "Poona" will answer your PM, he does know how to hone and he lives by you IIRC...

I am not sure he is honing all the time anymore, but he might help out a countryman....


Welcome to SRP...

Steve of The Invisible Edge is also in the UK. He is blueprinciple on the forums. He is a masterful honer an also sells new and vintage razors on his webpage here. He now carries the Naniwa superstones and Belgian coticules too. A Naniwa 1k, 3k, and 5k would be a decent set IMO along with an 8k if it were affordable. A yellow and blue Belgian is another option.