Thread: Finer Stones or Stroping w/paste?

Hello all,

I am going to collect some vintage razors and sharpen them for my own use. I am a newbee at sharpening razors and have been reading a lot on your forum. I am not, however, a newbee to sharpening as I sharpen knives (on oil stones) and machine tools for my own use.

My question:
What are the tradeoffs on stroping with different paste grits vs using successively finer waterstones for finishing and polishing, like the Naniwa set?

I'm trying to decide if I should buy the entire Naniwa set and forget pastes, or buy only 1k, 4k and 8k waterstones and use a group of strops with different pastes.

Also, I don't have a feel for how an 8k (for instance) waterstone compares with a specific grit of paste - ie, what paste grit would be used following the 8k waterstone?

Regards,
Doug
Arizona

Originally Posted by dgendrud

Hello all,

I am going to collect some vintage razors and sharpen them for my own use. I am a newbee at sharpening razors and have been reading a lot on your forum. I am not, however, a newbee to sharpening as I sharpen knives (on oil stones) and machine tools for my own use.

My question:
What are the tradeoffs on stroping with different paste grits vs using successively finer waterstones for finishing and polishing, like the Naniwa set?

I'm trying to decide if I should buy the entire Naniwa set and forget pastes, or buy only 1k, 4k and 8k waterstones and use a group of strops with different pastes.

Also, I don't have a feel for how an 8k (for instance) waterstone compares with a specific grit of paste - ie, what paste grit would be used following the 8k waterstone?

Regards,
Doug
Arizona

Many are happy shavers do so on pastes. Shaves are great, edges hold up. You will find here at SRP there are many who enjoy collecting and experimenting with different kinds of stones. Collecting stones can get expensive, that is a drawback. However, they do impart different charecter to the edge even from each other where some members begin to believe they have the best hones and methods.

But as one who has honed thousands((Lynn) of razors concludes, "there are many ways to skin a cat"

Having said that, for razors I would definitely go up to 8k and then do pastes. Getting finer stones after that is up to you.

Would you recommend a 12K or a 16K finishing stone? I was thinking of getting a Filly because it has a .5 micron pasted backside to hold me over before buying another stone.

Originally Posted by Shoki

Would you recommend a 12K or a 16K finishing stone? I was thinking of getting a Filly because it has a .5 micron pasted backside to hold me over before buying another stone.

If you feel you have masterd honing up to 8k, then yes. A finer natural or syn would be awesome. You will have to make that choice. I like playing with stones, but results are all that counts.

Originally Posted by Kingfish

If you feel you have masterd honing up to 8k, then yes. A finer natural or syn would be awesome. You will have to make that choice. I like playing with stones, but results are all that counts.

I am with you... My first thought was to take the worst edge and bring it to the best possible result.

Now my thought is to take the best edge and to keep it there as long as possible.

So now I am focusing on strops and pasted strops. next I will fall back on finishing hones, then on hones, etc.

I think for most folks maintaining the edge is most important.

Creating the edge is a skill that is necessary and desirable but not one that everybody needs as a first step.

Originally Posted by Shoki

I am with you... My first thought was to take the worst edge and bring it to the best possible result.

Now my thought is to take the best edge and to keep it there as long as possible.

So now I am focusing on strops and pasted strops. next I will fall back on finishing hones, then on hones, etc.

I think for most folks maintaining the edge is most important.

Creating the edge is a skill that is necessary and desirable but not one that everybody needs as a first step.

Wise words for great shaves.