Thread: Help with 12k honing

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

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

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

Thanks guys. Here we go!

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

Originally Posted by justalex

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

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

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.

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