Thread: Which hone for finishing?

You can use a fine barber hone as a finishing hone, the 3-line swaty is probably fine enough to qualify. I've got a King barber hone that I finish some of my razors on, it's been lapped very flat and very polished and does a good finish.

The problem with barber's hones is they are very small and can be tricky to use. There's a good reason the old barbers put smiling edges on their blades, the barber hones are much easier to use on smiling edges. My King barber hone puts an absolutely wicked edge on my smiling blades, but it's a good way for me to dull my straight edged razors.

Originally Posted by mparker762

You can use a fine barber hone as a finishing hone, the 3-line swaty is probably fine enough to qualify. I've got a King barber hone that I finish some of my razors on, it's been lapped very flat and very polished and does a good finish.

The problem with barber's hones is they are very small and can be tricky to use. There's a good reason the old barbers put smiling edges on their blades, the barber hones are much easier to use on smiling edges. My King barber hone puts an absolutely wicked edge on my smiling blades, but it's a good way for me to dull my straight edged razors.

Aren't eschers and coticules typically pretty small as well?

(Thanks for your good advice the other night mparker, that did the trick both for the hone and the razor.)

Smiling blades: Hold the blade spine-up. Smiling blades curve up on the heel and toe, frowning blades curve down. Smiling blades are honed by rocking the blade along the hone, on small hones this works great because only a small portion of the blade is in contact with the hone anyway, and if you don't keep the hone or blade perfectly flat it doesn't matter much because you're always rocking it back and forth anyway.

Some eschers and coticules are small, but not all of them are. Lynn's got a big 'un.

Pastes are a classic sharpening tool, some of the old guys used chromium oxide (in the form of green paint) on paddles for sharpening their razors, and the white chalky paste has been used for a long time as well. And they're certainly cheaper than fine-grit hones -- the Shapton 15k is $130 or so, and the Shapton 30k is > $600 I think. A tube of 60k chromium oxide paste costs $10.

Ah, thank you for the little lesson Mparker... I'm about to go pull my razor out and look at it. As far as Stones vs pastes... It think > $600 vs $10 might make pastes rub me a little better lol... but I am pretty stuborn, maybe that will change after I shave half my face off though =P

-Billy

I have found a few barber hones that are terrific and easy to use. A few that only improved the edge a little. I don't know if there are any magic bullets though. If you do spend $600 on a hone it should shave you too.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

If you do spend $600 on a hone it should shave you too.

lol, I cant even get my razor to shave yet! But your right, for 600 bucks it should =P

i personally use a norton 4k/8k first then i go onto a chinese 12000 grit wetstone as my finisher.

wasn't that expensive, a bit more then a barber hone will run ya, bit less then a corticule will cost. seem to work well. its also a very hard stone so it cuts slowly and i usually so 30+ laps on it to finish off before stropping it up

8" x 2 3/4" x 1 1/4" - 29$

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=4920

and yes i lapped it flat after i bought it with 800grit sandpaper.

~J

Originally Posted by Billy

Ah, thank you for the little lesson Mparker... I'm about to go pull my razor out and look at it. As far as Stones vs pastes... It think > $600 vs $10 might make pastes rub me a little better lol... but I am pretty stuborn, maybe that will change after I shave half my face off though =P

-Billy

Another thing that makes a difference for me is convenience. THe Norton 4/8 is the least convenient because you have to soak it first and working with it can be messy. Other wet hones I can use more easily by just putting a little water on them. But lately I prefer to work dry. You can use most barber hones that way, and some recommend it. Pastes are dry. If you're working dry you can do it anywhere, at a sesk or in an easy chair.

Pasted strops are also compact. You can get a 4 sided one with 6, 3, and 1 micron (equivalent to 3.5K, 8K and 14K) and plain leather on the fourth side. That lets you do everything except heavy honing on one tool, and at modest cost.

May I suggest that you first become competent with the Norton 4/8k and a 2 sided paddle strop pasted with 1.0 and 0.5 micron pastes. It will save you a lot of money initially and give you a great edge.

I have a number of coticule's and even the vintage one's have
visual quality issues in some of them and excessive wear in others. Those that do are being cut up and being sold as slurry stones. Even if the visual inspection pass'es the microscope exam will reveal variations in size and density of the abrasive grains. So far about 33% of mine are not up to muster.

The Eschers are more consistent in appearence and grain but much more difficult to come by. They are also slightly better than the coticules IMHO.

The Chinese 12K stone also works like a charm for finishing and is very inexpensive but cuts slowly.
That being said I still like natural stones a lot!

Again, Thank you everyone so much for all the input. I think I am going to stick with the norton for now, and let my bank roll build a little... its amazing how fast the bill runs up buying everything. In the mean time I'll keep my eye out for a good finish stone for the future.


Also, as a side not, where should I post about buying another razor? Im kind of wanting a half beat up old razor that has a blade that needs a little TLC so I can practice with it on the hone without fear of damaging my only usable straight razor.

--Billy