Help with 12k honing

[ryan2022]

Hi gents,

As I posted earlier about my newly aquired 12k stone, I had some questions about the honing itself.

I've lapped it, and its quite smooth and flat.

I was wondering, if I was going to try and use it to mimick a barbers hone, should I give the blade a touch up every week or so of steady shaves?

I'm guessing 6-10 laps or so on a standard barbers hone, would be more like 20-30 on a 12k.

Any help is appreciated.

Ryan

[mrsell63]

When your blade starts to tug and pull, go back to the 8k for 5 or 6 laps and then 6 or 8 laps on the 12k. All of these laps are "no pressure" laps. Keep your number of laps to a minimum. As Lynn says, less is more.

Jerry

[justalex]

what type of 12k is it? naniwas are pretty quick finishers (10 laps) whereas chinese 12k generally slow (30 laps), it depends.

Whatever stone it is, I would advise, very slow perfect strokes. Recently I've been experimenting with ridiculously slow 'zen' strokes and had great results. I can do slightly faster perfect no pressure strokes but, I feel the speed of stroke has a factor, in my head => driving into a pole at 100 miles an hour is going to make a bigger dent than driving into it at 5 miles an hour. Its not a new thing, glen has mentioned it several times before, I'm just taking it to extremes

smaller the dent at the edge, the smoother and sharper it'll be IMO

[ryan2022]

Thanks guys. Here we go!

[mjsorkin]

I read your first post about this stone and I see that it is a c"12k" stone.

If by "mimick a barbers hone" you mean maintain a blade with minimal hassle, then yes I believe it's possible. 20-30 laps on plain water for a touchup is as good a guess as any.

The confusion starts when you figure that there are about a million types of barber hones, and they are all different. Then consider that your stone is a unique natural stone, different from any other, and it's pretty hard to answer your question.

Here is the simple part. Your stone is a fine hone which can be used to hone a razor. So try it out. Throw some plain water on it and try a few consistent and smooth strokes. Use the Magic Marker test and a magnifier to see what it does to your edge.

After you get a good shaving edge, no matter how you do it, then you can maintain it as you wish. IMO, whether you hone it every week as a routine or you wait until the razor is dull before honing is only a matter of personal preference. Either way, what you are hoping for is comfortable shaves.

I don't think starting out honing with lapping film and a cnat will be super easy but I have no doubt you can get some success. It just takes a lot of trial and error.

Best of luck

Michael

[Ryan82]

what type of 12k is it? naniwas are pretty quick finishers (10 laps) whereas chinese 12k generally slow (30 laps), it depends.

I read your first post about this stone and I see that it is a c"12k" stone. 20-30 laps on plain water for a touchup is as good a guess as any.

Being a natural hone it totally depends on the individual stone. Over the years I've read about specimens so hard that it takes 100-200 laps on a C-12k to get a great edge. The 30 lap mark is probably a good starting point; test every 10 laps or so after that until the TPT feels good and then test shave.

[justalex]

The confusion starts when you figure that there are about a million types of barber hones, and they are all different

I'm sure some were coticules I believe, which opens up the variation even more. But then again I've heard chinese 12k's to be extremely varied in performance for a single stone