Thread: Which hone for finishing?

I just bought a Norton 4k/8k from Classicshaving.com and im wondering which hone I should get for a finishing hone? I think I seen mention of coticule? Or something to that effect... what are my choices here? And any feedback, tips or hints you can provide. Thanks.

-Billy

Try the 8K, that might do it!

A coticule or escher are my choices. A pasted strop (Tony Miller makes good ones) is another popular alternative, and much easier to come by than either of the stones. A good pasted strop is also pretty easy to make yourself. Modern coticules apparently have some severe quality control problems, and Eschers are damn near unobtainable by anyone with budgetary constraints. You can get a good shaving edge with just the 8k, though. A lot of folks make that their final honing step.

Originally Posted by Joe Chandler

A coticule or escher are my choices. A pasted strop (Tony Miller makes good ones) is another popular alternative....

Joe, can you use a Swaty as a finishing hone? Is there technically a difference between a finishing hone and a touch-up hone?

Gary

The 15k shapton works well as a finishing hone. Lynn claims in his video somebody on SRP owns the mysterious and pricey 30k shapton, I'm still waiting to hear the review on that baby.

You can also use a pasted paddle with a progression of 1 micron, 0.5 micron, and 0.25 micron pastes (you don't have to go all the way to 0.25, I've got one with just 1 and 0.5 pastes). 1 micron is roughly comparable to 15k grit, and 0.5 micron is roughly comparable to 30k grit.

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.

Thanks for the great input guys. Im actually trying to avoid pastes... I dont know, something about pastes just rubs me the wrong way. The next question is, where to I obtain, or look to get more information about obtaining these hones? The Escher, Coticule or shapton? Also, this "Severe Quality Control" thing... is this something that can be avoided or is this something that should keep me from looking into that paticular hone?


-Billy

Mparker,

What is a Smiling blade? Sorry, im sort of a newb... well... Im a newb lol.



-Billy

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.