Thread: What is the best honing stone available?

Hello Guys,

I have been using straight razors for two decades now. I developed a love/hate relationship with 'em. I love the shave, I hate the honing.
I have been using an extra fine Arkansas oilstone (novaculite i.e. razor stone) but it takes me ages to get a sharp edge. I learnt the hard way to use it with water rather than honing oil. Honing oil seems to clog it up and makes it extremely slippery and unuseable. Who can advise me re. what stone to buy? I have seen Norton 4k/8k advertised, Belgian coticule and Belgian blue stone (costing a fortune), barber hones (really cheap but are they any good?), Japanese stones, diamond stones and so on.
I am getting confused. Can anyone of you guys discuss the pros and cons of the various stones? I envy those of you who say they can sharpen a razor with 10-20 strokes on their stones.

Before every shave I use a paddle strop that I paste with green Puma paste with chrome (No. 3 extrafein).

The razors I mainly use are one that belonged to my grandfather made by Roemer in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and a Zwilling Friodur razor.

My e-mail address is: [email protected]

Hello,

Many guys in this community use the Norton 4K/8K combination stone. You can get one for about $65 U.S., and it will allow you refine good edges and reshape bevels.

Groetjes,

Ben

Hi Kees,

First, congratulations on lasting 2 decades with such limited sources for straight razor shaving. It must have been dificult collecting informations from old barbers, and experimenting for yourself. As far as sharpening stones, you won't regret buying the Norton 4/8K combo stone. It is worth every penny. The "drawback" is that you must soak it before use. Well, at least the 4000 side. The 8000 is good with a splash of water. If I had to do it all over again, I would get them separately, and in 2 inch width. It cuts fast, and it's reliable.

Barber hones are more handy and lightweight, and you can use them dry. The drawback is that they are inconsistent in grit (you never know the grit size), and you will need atleast medium and fine finishing one. So far, I have mixed results with two of mine.

The Yellow Belgian coticule is expencive, but people who used it, like it. Me, I'm not sure of their result, I have only used it once, to hone 7 razors, and I kinda like it. I feel it cuts slower than Norton. It is considered fine finishing hone 8000-12000 grit, but my friend, also shaving with straight razor for ~20 years is using it exclusively. The Blue (dark brownish purple actually) Belgian is slow cutter, and is rated ~6000 grit. Both Belgians are used with water, and building a slurry is prefered.

So, for getting only one hone, my pick is the Norton 4000/8000 combination.

cheers,
Nenad

The Norton 4000/8000 3" wide stone is probably the easiest to keep clean, easiest to lap flat, cuts the fastest of any hone except a diamond hone and gives you a shave ready edge.
It will last a very long time.

The diamond hones are not fine enough and the Spyderco hones can be uded but they have their own set of problems. The classic barber hones work but you need to know what your getting. Most of them fall into the fine category, not the finishing category. Two natural finishing waterstones are the Chinese 12000 available from woodcraft.com and the Belgian
yellow coticule which is available from a couple of sources.
The finishing hones are not a necessity but they do give a better shave.

The Norton 4000/8000 would give you a much better shave than what you are getting now.

Hope this helps and welcome to the group!

To everybody: thank you for your great advice.

As I am a nostalgic guy I think I'll buy a Belgian blue and a coticule. I am still trying to find a decently priced one as such stones are expensive.

In the mean time I have been reading a lot of discussions on this forum and the nagging thought came to me that for years I might have overhoned my razors in an awful way. I have been slaving away on my Arkansas extra fine black stone and may have overdone it. So I did what a lot of you guys seem to be doing: start from scratch, start with the Arkansas medium stone and alternate it with the extra fine one and guess what: in less than half an hour I got a good edge confirmed by the Kees HHT which is the hand hair test. It cut straight through the hairs on the back of my hand and wrist. From experience I know that is the moment my razor is sharp enough to get a shave a thousand times better than with a fresh Gilette double blade cartridge. I use those when I'm short of time or annoyed at having to hone my razor again.

I have not tried my razor yet as I am busy redecorating the house, but as soon as I have I'll let everybody know. By the way: I use water and no oil with my Arkansas stones. Every so often I clean them with alcohol and a toothbrush. Remnants of facial grease and lather seem to stick on my razors after use and clog up the pores. As do of course bits of steel. Oil in my experience turns my Arkansas stones into icerinks.

Kees

Originally Posted by Kees

As I am a nostalgic guy I think I'll buy a Belgian blue and a coticule.

I had the same thinking when I went for barber hones initially. I continue to fail to achieve a shaving sharp edge from them. The Norton is less costly than Belgians and most effective. I've been branching out from that foundation. Not trying to disuade you, just trying to open your mind in case things don't go your way. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Also, rather than simpy looking for cheap Begians if you still decide this is your direction, ensure the highest quality. My Belgian coticule bout had some blue veins running trhough it and I'm wondering if it might be foiling my attempts to refine the edge after using the Norton 4k/8k. Can anybody answer this?

X

Originally Posted by xman

My Belgian coticule bout had some blue veins running trhough it and I'm wondering if it might be foiling my attempts to refine the edge after using the Norton 4k/8k. Can anybody answer this?

X

Well, Artur Boon from Nassrasur mentioned that newely mined Belgian stones are inferior to synthetic ones because of the stone irregularities and embeded particles which are preventing the stone to perform like it's elderly predecessors. The one Belgian that I've seen, though, was with nice clean surface...

Nenad

Dear X,

You may have a coticule with some veins of Belgian blue in it. Coticule is considered to have a grit of 8-12k while Belgian blues have a grit of 4-6k.

Coticule and Belgian blue often run together in a rock. Both are presumed to be of volcanic sedimentary origin. Click on the following link and you can see what it looks like underground in the mine: http://bxl1.free.fr/coticule.htm. Scroll downward, below the French text and you will see some pictures of the inside of a coticule mine. The 7th and 8th show the veins of coticule and blue whetstone run side by side. Between the pictures it reads "Les filon de coticule...". If you want to know more about the mineral content of coticule and Belgian blues click here: http://www.belgischerbrocken.com/. Click on the Union Jack and then on "Information about the Belgian sharpening stone". If you scroll downward you will find below the order form some interesting info. on Belgian whetstones.

Apart from the differences in grit size you should take into account that te coticule wears more easily than the Belgian blue. So after using it more and more your stone will become less than perfectly flat. I am not a honemeister but I can imagine that humps on the honing surface may damage your edge.

The gist of it is that your coticule might be "adulterated" with Belgian blue. I will check my stone carefully as soon as it arrives for blue veins... Thanks for the tip-off.

Kees

There are definetly differences i the Coticule stones. Some have a distinct grain pattern in them in which a more coarse crystaline structure is seen. Most of the "Old Roc" or "exta-extra" stones as a solid, homogenous yellow with little on no grains/crystals evident.

I have gotten my best results with the more homogenous stones, other do well with the more crytstaline ones. I recently sent a very grainy looking stone to Lynn for testing and he seemed to get decent results from it.

Most natural stones have variations. The vintage Eschers I have tried all seem a little different too. Some hard, some soft with colors ranging from jet blac, to charcoal grey to a greenish/yellow tint. With any of these the underlying garnet crystals can usually be seen with a microscope.

Tony

Kees, I use barber hones and get great results with them. I do agree with the other posts that they can be hard to identify as far as the grit is concerned. If you can afford Belgians then you at least need to get a Norton 4k/8k first. You can check with Tilly aka redtrader99 and see what barber hones she has.

Glen