First post and hone question

Hi all,

I'm new around here. I've been lurking for a while, trying to read as much as possible before making a first post. The great info here has already guided me to my first SR purchase - a shave-ready Dovo - and I have everything else I need to get started. I am graduating from a Merkur Futur DE razor, which I have been using for several years. It has been good but not good enough, so here I am. Looking forward to learning from you all as I get to know this new tool.

First question: OK, I know that I should lay off buying a hone until fully initiated in the art of actually using the SR, but I would still appreciate some advice on a good touch-up hone for when the time comes to get one. IIUC, a suitably prepared edge taken to roughly 8k is sufficient for shave-readyness, but most folks advocate taking it further with a polish at higher grits, up to 10-12k. Is this 'polish' also the aim of the no-longer-produced 'barber's hone', which surely must be a high grit (higher than 8k) intended to spruce up a properly prepared edge that has started to become less keen despite stropping? If so, why do so many recommend a coticle or belgian blue wet stone as a maintenance hone, which I understand to be in the ~8k or less category? I guess the first hone for a noob needs to be a fairly 'slow' stone, but what is the current thinking on good choices? Maybe a 10K Super Stone? I'm in no rush to buy a hone yet, but this aspect of hone choice and use is really stumping me.

At first Welcome to srp
The questions you are asking doesn't have 1 perfect answer .
Everyone has their own way to keep edge and loves that way. That is why you will have different opinions on this issue.
My personal choose will be barber hone Not all out there good ones.
you make only 2-4 laps and blade is ready for use again.
Now can you do same job by buying coticule,escher,japan ,chinese hones ?
Answer is yes .
ONly deal will be you have to spend more money and time on them
hope this helps.
GL

I think a good place to start would be with the Norton 4k/8k combo stone, and a Chinese 12 k. These two stones would do everything you need to do and would not cost a whole lot. Then you could add to them as your experience and wallet warrant. Good luck!

Welcome to SRP. I agree with hi_bud_gl. A good strop and maybe a piece of balsa with some chrom-ox or diamond paste is also a good thing to bring a razor back up to snuff and a lot cheaper and easier to come by. If you eventually get into honing your own razors I think practicing on used but good condition blades is the best way to learn. For that the Naniwa superstones or yellow/blue combo coticule are excellent choices IME.

Thanks folks. On your advice I've contacted Chris on this forum for some CrO powder. However, with Christmas coming up, I couldn't resist asking Santa for a naniwa stone (a 10K to start with, as recommended by my blade supplier) and also a nice 3" latigo strop to replace the starter Dovo strop I will undoubtedly mutilate over the coming weeks and which will become my CrO strop. I'm already finding that the edge of my new razor is not keen enough for my tough beard and that stropping doesn't quite get it there, but I'm persevering with it for now because of my general noobness. I still have both ears, which is a bonus.

Undoubtedly, Santa will be thrilled at the prospect of having to carry a large stone in his sack.

IMO your best bet is to send the razor to Steve at The Invisible Edge for pro honing. That will give you something to shave with and to see what a truly shave ready razor feels and looks like. Then get some antique store, flea market or ebay razors cheap but in good condition to practice honing.

I too am new at this site but would still like to throw my two cents into the conversation. When learning how to hone your razor I think the equipment that will come in most handy is a microscope. This really helped me a lot when learning to hone because I could actually inspect the bevel as it went through the progression of getting shave ready.

Really the big trick to learning to hone is learning when you have done enough work at the different grits, and it really helps to be able to inspect the edge, as opposed to knowing by feel of thumb test etc. This feel of will come with experience, but when starting it is difficult to tell what sharp feels like at the 1K, 4K, level etc. Nothing can beat actually looking at the edge at 200x and seeing what is happening as you go through your progressions.

The first set of stones I bought were the Norton 4/8 and a 12K nani. These will work great, but I do have one recommendation. Before buying the higher grit stones it may be worth your while to just save up and go all in with some really nice ones. I already have moved up to Shapton 16 and 30K. If you are going to make the commitment to learn how to hone your razor you might be able to save yourself some money in the long run by just starting with the Shapton 16K since eventually you will almost certainly want to move up anyways.

At first I also thought I just needed something to maintain my edge; but if you are anything like me as soon as you hone your first shave ready edge, you are going to start asking yourself how much nicer is 16K than 10K, or 30K to 16K? At that point you are hooked and are going to need the different stones. So in conclusion my recommendation is to make a master plan of the stuff you will eventually need in order to prevent having to buy duplicate grit sizes, when you want to "move up a level".