Handamerican Flat Bed Hone??

Hi:

I have ordered my first straight razor from Lynn but still need to get a strop/hone.

My question is, would the Flat Bed Hone from Handamerican with appropriate abrasive papers, leathers etc. suffice for daily stropping and the periodic honing that's necessary.


Thanks for your willingness to share your hard won knowledge.

Bob

I really have enjoyed the Flat Bed hones for pastes. The Natural leather would work fine for everyday stropping as well. The nice thing about these is you just change out the hones on the base and you have a lot of flexibility.

Lynn

I just hit return on a PM to you and I discover your reply here.

Spooky quick . . . :)

Thanks, I think I might go with them because I'd only need to learn one motion for both tasks. (I'm assuming here that using their system with the abrasive pastes you still hone spine first)

Would there be no need for another hone (eg. Norton)?

For honing I've thought that one of the difficulties might be that an ordinary user just doesn't get enough practice to develop true skill.

Bob

I have used some of Keith's Hand American leather and think the natural as Lynn suggested is the best choice for pastes. The red smooth is nice too but I don't think it holds pastes as well.

Keith is a great guy to deal with and makes an innovative product.

Tony

Hi Lynn & Tony:

Thanks for your comments about the use of the Hand America Hone for use with pastes.

I went ahead and purchased a Flat Bed Hone from Keith. It hasn't arrived yet but then again I'm still waiting for Canada Post to bring me my razor:(

From what I can gather from other threads it seems that honing is as much an art as a science. People seem to develop their own methods to achieve similar results.

I think I'm just going to have to try the Flat Bed as an alternative to a Norton (or similar) hone in order to see if it'll work.

Probably I'll end up getting a hanging strop and multiple hones just to be 'one of the guys' :)

Cheers,
Bob