Thread: Beginner here: needing help with finding the right stone

I have yet to purchase my first stone but don't have a lot of experience or $$$ to splurge on. I have 4 razors that I got from Ebay that need to be restored and honed. What kind of hone would you recommend that would be great for sharpening and maintaining my razors for life?

the very standard is norton 4/8 k
Add DMT 1.2k for bevel setting, and a barber hone or 10k Naniwa Superstone and I think you will be fine. Don't forget to get CrO strop and hanging strop.
Hope others will chime in with other cheap options, I can;t think of anything else due to my limited experience.

If you want cheap it has to be a barbers hone.
you can never reset bevels with that hone. A nice belgium coticule would very good with slurry it will do the work of say 4k the thinner your slurry is it will refine and with water will polish and maintain for what paste cost i'd get some cro.ox. Bart has some nice cheap coticules on his website coticule.be look in his coticule vault. I agree 4/8k is what i started with fantastic hone all you would ever need i have tryed them both and still use them both but more so my coticules so easy to hone you carn't over hone on them well i never i should say.

your best option at this moment will be norton 4/8k.later you can move on to more expensive and fasinating honning addiction by buying coticules'naniwa's,escher,s shapton sets so on,so,on.gl

Amazon has the entire Norton set for less than $120 shipped it includes the lapping stone the 220/1k and the 4k/8k

This set will do razors from E-baby to shave ready...

Much later down the road after you learn to get a shaving edge off the Norton 8k the you can add a finisher if ya want...


Also check out SRD and see if Lynn and Don are running specials right now on the Naniwa sets

Before you buy anything, I would recommend taking a look at some of the honing videos like the ones on the home page here and see what people are using and listen to how they are using them and what the stones are doing. This should help you get an idea on the stones being used and give you a basis for some additional questions.

Have fun,

Lynn

What would ya'll think about me sending them in to get honed, then just buying a barber hone to maintain them, would that work? Now I am assuming that may be all that they need but I'm not sure. They are old and pretty dull so I'm not sure if honing is all that they'll need but, I have a very tight budget and can't really afford to buy all these stones.

I also am a beginner here, does anyone know anything about a No.3 Frictionite Hone, 2 sided. Just curious if this would be a good starting stone. Have a couple of razors coming from ebay, look to be in relatively good shape. I would like to be able fix them myself, see what they look like in person soon and may send them out to start.

Cheers to everyone at SRP this site has been a great help to me as i start into this new realm of shaving.

That is great idea. Send them to Lynn and get it honed. What you will get 1.you will know they all shave ready.2 nd you will see how shave ready blade should act.3 rd in case if you are having problems with shaving you will know it is something else soap'angle etc.4rth You r getting your blade honed with the best honer.5 th you can guide yourself in future comparing edges which you will hone. When i use cell phone i hate typing. About barber hone you mention it is top 5 in my list among barber hones. But they are pricey.hope this helps