Thread: What is the best honing stone available?

Kees, I've mailed you but let me know and I'll help you get a coticule for a decent price. You live in the Netherlands and it's not too bad getting one.

I like my coticule and have one of similar quality that Xman has. Although mine is a size smaller. For me it was a cheap, well working stone that I've used with everything I've honed so far at it works just fine without much hassle.

I had a great shave today!!

So thanks everybody for their honing advice. What did I do differently? I did alternate the medium and extra fine Arkansas, using water and no oil as the oil clogs up the pores. A few strokes for either side of the blade on the medium stone followed by the same on the extra fine stone and then stropping and hand hair test. This sequence repeated a couple of times until the hand hair test was satisfactory. I did it within half an hour so I guess overhoning was my problem.
The other thing I changed was to let the spine rest on the stone and the storp. I used to keep the spine suspended if you like a few millimeters above the stone and the strop.

Thanks again everybody for their great advice!

Kees

Originally Posted by Kees

I had a great shave today!!

I used to keep the spine suspended if you like a few millimeters above the stone and the strop.

Thanks again everybody for their great advice!

Kees

uh, that figures why you had lousy results so far... That way you'll never get a shaving edge, because your angle is never the same.

Anyways, nice you finaly got the honing thing down, we learn something each day...

Nenad

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

I like my coticule and have one of similar quality that Xman has. Although mine is a size smaller. For me it was a cheap, well working stone that I've used with everything I've honed so far at it works just fine without much hassle.

How are you using it?
Water only or a slurry of some kind?
How many laps?
How much pressure?
Are you following it with pastes or anything?
What stone are you coming off of to the coticule?
I must admit I'm a bit stymied by mine right now.

X

I use water and make some slurry with a piece of very fine sandpaper.
I'm not sure what stone I'm coming off but it's a fairly rough one that I bought years ago to hone my pocket knives.
I start with lots of pressure and decrease after a while. I have to admit that I don't really know how many laps I do. After a while Ijust test it to see how sharp it's gotten. If it can cut hairs on my arm I consider it ready for a strop.

Then I do 100 passes on linnen and 100 passes on leather. Usually that's all I need to do really.
I'll be looking for a better rough stone I think.

Using a lot of pressure is risky business. You have to be absolutely sure that you have the blade perfectly flat on the stone or you may create a burr on the edge getting you "furher from home". Let gravity do the work. I would prefer a faster cutting stone that needs less pressure after which you can proceed on a finer stone. The fact that you need so many passes on the strop suggests to me your cutting edge is left too coarse after honing. A finer stone might save you time. I just started to alternate a medium and an extra fine stone. 10 passes on either side of the blade on the medium stone followed by 10 passes on the extra fine stone followed by 10 passes on the strop. Then I do a hand hair test. If I am not satisfied I repeat the cycle again. I learnt to keep the spine always in contact with the stone.

I learnt my lessons with applying pressure to a straight while honing.

I don't think I HAVE to do that many strop passes. It just makes me feel comfortable. And like I said I have a belgian coticule which is a very fine stone.
As for hand hair....I don't have any.

Originally Posted by gglockner

Kees, I use barber hones and get great results with them....[snip]
Glen

I'll second that Glen. That old ebay razor you beautifully restored and sent me has one blazingly keen edge! I also get great results using classic barber hones.

Kees, IMHO what makes the "best honing stone available," will depend on your patience, determination and resolve. If you don't make a firm commitment to master the art of honing, even the "best honing stone" will offer poor results.

The benefit of choosing a Norton 4k/8k is that there are several people here who have thoroughly mastered this hone and can offer very helpful assistance.

However, if like myself, you choose to learn to hone like the old time barbers, you will be more or less on your own. Not everyone who uses barber hones, has mastered the same ones, so good advice that might work well for one hone may not necessarily work for another of a different grit size or composite. That being said, if you're patient and determined you will succeed with whatever hones you choose. Eventually, you'll have in your hands the "best honing stone available".

Hal

Hello Hal,

You're quite right there. With the advice of some of the honemasters I now know what I have been doing wrong all those years. So much so that I am getting great results with my Arkansas medium and extra fine stones which I use with water and not honing oil as the latter tends to clog up the pores. Even after use with water I occasionally brush them clean with alcohol because even traces of lather and stropping paste left behind on the straight's blade cause some shine on the stone after a while which I suspect does adversely affect the honing quality. Has anyone else out there any experience (good or bad) with Arkansas stones? I would be interested to know as I get the impression I am the only one on this forum that uses them. Arkansas oilstone after all is known to geologists as novaculite. Novacula is Latin for razor! So someone at least must have thought these stones are good for honing razors.

I honed my very first straight (a silberstahl) on an Arkansas White and a Surgical Black. They work fine for razors, but compared to a Norton 4/8K, they are SLOOOOOOW!!! Now that I own a couple of Nortons 4/8 and 220/1K, a 12K Chineese, a small combo Belgian blue/Coticule, and a couple of pasted strops, I rarely use the Arkansas stones . Yeah, I got it bad .

Ed