6000 grit, now what next

So i honed my first razor with a 6000 japaneese. Today I shaved with it, It went ok i guess but I would like to make it sharper.

I am on a budget. So I was wondering what I should buy to make it sharper. Do I really have to buy a higer grit stone or I could just buy green paste or 0.5

I could certainly afort paste and hope to not buy a stone, but if i really have to buy a stone i will

I don't really care if i have to spend 2 hour stroping or something. I am mostly wondering if i can get to the end of the honing pyramid without another stone

thanks

Assuming that the stone is 6000 JIS and not 6000 mesh (like the grading system norton uses), you should be fine with a paddle or hanging strop pasted with 1 micron diamond and .5 micron CrO. Just buying CrO would prolly help, but I think getting the diamond would be a good idea.

sure you can get by with paste but you could probably jump to the chinese 12K aswell
and that dont cost a lot

Can I get there with just the 0.5 micron CrO ? or would it take too long

stropping with a polishing compund should not be a matter of time.
By that I mean it is not true when it is said:
"If your razor is honed on 800grit all you have to do is make 30.000 strikes on Chromium Oxide"
Things don´t work that way.

Chromium oxide (0.5µm) is a polishing compound. A 6000grit stone cuts away metal, leaving scratch marks and worse teeth on the edge.
If the Cr2O3 is simply too fine to abrade the teeth, they will stay and hurt your skin
If however you are lucky and your honing skill is good you probably will get by with jumping from 6000 to Cr2O3

I recommend getting a "coarser" paste like 1µm diamond and Chromium Oxide.
I would rather leave out the Chromium than the 1µm diamond.

But why don´t you get your razor honed by a honemeister from here?

6000, new JIS, is about 2 micron. I think something around 1u, film or paste or 16k Shapton etc..., might be good.

Try going from 6000 straight to the 0.5 Chromium Oxide. If it seems to work ok for you; then maybe a 1u isn't needed. On a budget, I'd go with the paste, too.

A barber's hone can be had for pretty cheap or you could use lapping films.

3M Micro Abrasive Film for Scary Sharpening - PSA at Tools for Working Wood

well I am not sure what I will do with all the info you guys gave me but thaks, you have all been of great help

Ok so would this give me good shave

1000k
6000k
ebay item 360211941367 that i would have to buy
0.5 CrO

?

Also while I am at it. I think I read that you can put lather on a waterstone to make it softer

What does that mean ? I have to put soap on the stone ?

That progression will give you a very comfortable shave. To save time you should start with slurry on the Guangxi stone and finish with water only. Lather on the stone is something you could try when you're more experienced.

It may be better to introduce paste in your progression when you know you can get the maximum sharpness out of your Guangxi. After using paste it will be tougher to judge how well you honed.

You are tossing out a tonne of questions and receiving answers, but you have left us in the dark...:confused:

What brand of stones are you using ????
the 6k especially ??

well i can't really answer your question :( but here is a link to the waterstone i bought

Langevin & Forest : BOIS FINS ET OUTILS SPÉCIALISÉS

That shop was pretty close to where i live and it was cheap. The only info i have is its japenese and is a 1000/6000 combo

Isn't 6k JIS about 12k mesh? I wouldn't think a barber would be worth the effort unless it was a VERY fine one.

I'd go chrox and strop off a 6k JIS until I was ready to snag a 16k+ finisher. I doubt even the chinese 12k would be worth the effort to follow that.

Quote:

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Also while I am at it. I think I read that you can put lather on a waterstone to make it softer

What does that mean ? I have to put soap on the stone ?

---

You can not make a stone softer.
Adding lather to the hone, or a little soap or detergent will make the hone more slippery.
You do that by making wet lather with your shaving cream or soap
and put it on the hone instead of water.
Or you just put a drop of detergent onto the hone, and hone with water.

The lather is said to reduce the depth of the sharpening particles looking out of the hones surface.
Theoretically this could reduce the grit size a tad.
This is used on finishing stones only in the final stage.
I did it with my C12k because water would not spread evenly on the hone.

If it really improves the performance of a stone is debatable


Your setup (maybe it would help to give us information about your 6k hone)
lacks a intermediate sharpener like a 3.000.
This is the only thing I would change,
if the 1k/6k is of good quality.
A way to improve the 1k to 6k jump is to slurry on the 6k.
This helps getting rid of the 1k teeth.
I use a little piece of 6k hone.

You could contact a coticule vendor asking for a tiny couticule slurry stone,
wich should not cost much. This could be used to slurry on your 6k,
making it cut much faster. You then finish with 6k and water only
and jump to the chinese 12k with slurry made of its own slurry stone.
Finish with either water only, or lather/soap

Afterwards you can strop on crox and strop on leather only and try to shave.

If this will give you good shaves? Well this depends entirely on your level of skill.
Do not expect your first attemots to be fully successfull, honing has a learning curve that needs to be followed =)

thanks for the time you guys took to try to help me. Ill try to tell you how it goes when i get back to honing.

So I think one of the things you guys seems to try to tell me is that my stone is actualy a 6000k Jis and thats basicaly the same grit as the 12k chinese i wanted to buy ? Is that corect

IanS seems to believe that your 6k synthetic waterstone may be as smooth as a Guangxi, but I don't think many others will agree with that.

So as I said I am very new to striaght razor. But I am not sure where my blade is at right now.

So I did the 1k then the 6k on the japan stone with the straight razor As I had mentioned previously. I guess that was the max I could sharpen my blade since I am waiting for 0.5 CrO. Now I tried to sharpen a pocket knife on the 1k. It was WAyyy too slow and it was really messy. I realize the mess was slurry i think. So I decided to put some on the back of a leather belt as I remember seeing a post here that said it could be used as paste.

But since the slurry came from a 1k stone, i was afraid it would unsharpen my blade. Anyways I stroped it with the slurryand then tried the HHT and to my surprised it kinda work.

Now that made me realise some of my hair seems biger then other. And maybe I canot cut my finest hair right now. Also I have to cut close to where i am holding the hair generaly. But I guess it means the blade is getin sharper

So anyways now i am still lost in all that as i have no idea how many micron the slurry was.