Thread: What is the best honing stone available?

Originally Posted by randydance062449

I have been away for a week and wanted to post this to you before.

I was reading a collection of woodworking articles on maintaining woodworking tools. One of the articles dealt with sharpening on Arkansas stones. The gentleman used kerosene as a lubricant as it is a very fine oil. To keep his stones in shape he would roughen them up once in while. It seems that the arkansas abrasive pasticles can become rounded and thus fail to remove metal as fast as they once would. The solution is to lap them on either a coarser stone or sandpaper. This
restores the stones cutting ability.


Food for thought,

Thanks for the tip. My razors need another hone soon and I am going lap my stones before I start.

Reading the discussions on this forum I get the impression most members can use their razors for weeks before having to re-hone. Mine usually lose their sharpness after 1 or 2 weeks daily use. Before every shave I strop them on a paddle strop. On the leather of the strop I use green wax-like stropping substance by Puma. I don't apply much pressure, I let the spine travel on the leather while stropping, the leather of the strop is not very taut. I use the same razor every day. What am I doing wrong?

Well, the common knowledge here is that you don't need sharpening paste every day. Your green compound is most likely the chromiumoxide paste. My razors last for about 10 shaves between honings, stropping on canvas and clean leather only.

I only put new green wax on when the green starts to fade. There are one or two "streaks" if you like, on the leather that have most contact with the razor that lose the green colour fastest. They could do with re-pasting every week but I re-paste less often.
I feel more reassured now that I have read I am not the only one who has to re-hone a razor every 1-2 weeks. Thanks!

For some additional reassurance, mine also last about 10 shaves a pop. A bit longer in the summer as I'm switching to 2 passes. 3 pass shaves combined with hot weather sweating aren't good for my sensitive skin lol.

Shaving 3 passes? How long does a shave take you?
I usually start against the grain straight away. Some areas (jaw line, chin and moustache) I do twice in slightly different directions because they got a variable grain. A shave takes me no more than 12 minutes. The sharper the blade the quicker the shave. How about you?

My routine takes me just under 20min:
1) Wash the face
2) Apply crappy wilkinson soap
3) Go downstairs and strop (the bathroom is being renovated lol)
4) Go back upstairs, wash off the crappy soap
5) Put on some quality soap
6) Get some music started
7) N--->S pass
8) Side to side
9) S--->N pass
10) Rinse off the brush and my face
11) Clean the soap residue off the blade with alcohol
12) Run downstairs and re-strop (this step has been debated on both sides lol)
13 Run back upstairs and apply aftershave

You're a fast shaver! 3 passes under 20 min. would ruin my facial skin and cause nigh exsanguination (lol).

What's the point of crappy soap on your face? I tend to take some more time for the good lather to soften the hairs and lubricate the skin. I use Palmolive shaving cream which used to be available in the U.S.A. in the nineties of last century.
I usually lather my face, comb my hair or what's left of it, strop the razor and then start shaving. Before shaving I often refresh the lather that is still on my face because it tends to dry out quickly, especially under the nose.