Thread: Lithide Barber hone thumbs up

Originally Posted by izlat

I am wondering why a coarser hone (in general, and Lithide in particular) would be used after 16K grit work?

Does it feel better on the face after 16K + Lithide than after only 16K?

Cheers
Ivo

For touch-ups, I actually use the Lithide first, then strop and shave. If I feel like the blade needs a tad bit more finishing, then I take it to the 16K for a few strokes, and strop/shave again. Sorry - I don't think I was clear about that... Not sure if that's really a "standard" approach per se, but it seems to work pretty well for me...

Oh, thanks for the answer. I guess I misunderstood.

A finer (16K) after the Lithide makes sense to me, sure.

As a side comment, if it's not sharp enough after the 4k/8k or whatever you use before the Lithide, I would imagine it needs a lot of work on a 16K

Cheers
Ivo

I don't know what grit the lithide is, but I do know its supposed to be a finishing/touch up hone.

If its not sharp enough off the lithide, going to a finer hone/stone isn't going to help - unless as Ivo states, you're prepared to spend a lot of time on the finer hone.

Originally Posted by suzuki

I don't know what grit the lithide is, but I do know its supposed to be a finishing/touch up hone.

If its not sharp enough off the lithide, going to a finer hone/stone isn't going to help - unless as Ivo states, you're prepared to spend a lot of time on the finer hone.

Yeah, I do end up going through multiple cycles of hone/strop/shave off the 16K sometimes. I should probably just go back to a conservative 4k/8k pyramid instead. As you can tell, I'm still getting my sea legs on this whole honing thing...

I have just had the shave of my life of the lithide. Proraso green to prep and the razor was scything down hairs. I am not good enough to go against the grain yet and have given up trying at times as my razor was not sharp enough but i reckon it is good to go now and I can start learning the alternative (reverse) grip and start going upwards.

I hope I don't lop my head off

I wouldn't imagine the lithide is a really high grit. It is perfect fro after the 8K though. I have a bench hone at home that is waiting for some chrome oxide paste, i think this will be the next step for my quest in splitting the atom

cath you later, i am off to stroke my face......

I also use the lithide. I lapped mine prior to use with wet/dry sandpaper, since Tilly recommended it. It is my finishing hone and I get very good results with it. Depending on the razor, I use 5-10 laps for touch ups.

Thanks Mike,

I will give my razor 5 strokes when it starts to pull (shouldn't be long) and see what it does.

OK, I've had the hone a few weeks now and have been playing around with it. 5 strokes doesn't seem to be enough to get the razor perfectly sharp but 10 to 20 works wonders. Maybe the people using 5 strokes had the razor sharper than me and had less work needed. I guess you just keep honing until you get it shaving comfortable. On such a small stone I don't think doing 10 strokes will put you in danger of overhoning.

This hone isn't very fast cutting like a water stone, so you are probably right about overhoning being less likely. I think honing is like tuning a guitar or building bicycle wheel. When you get close to the finished product, small adjustments followed by testing are the right approach.

The lithide is very slow cutting and given this fact, its very high grit and small size, I don't think there's much risk of overhoning if you only do 10 - 20 laps (or even more, for that matter) - especially if you go slow and light.