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Yes another newbie honing question

Yes another newbie here joining the ranks at B&B. I have been reading through the forums over the last few weeks and have enjoyed it very much so I ended up registering. Since I am a newbie, there is so much to learn and I feel that I have learned a significant amount about wet shaving in just the last few weeks but I see that there is oh so much more to learn. For now I have a question about honing. I have noticed that the standard recommended here is a 4000/8000 stone and possibly going up to 12K or above. I recently bought a 12K to do finishing work on my straight razors but it is my other stones that I have questions about. You see, quite a while ago, before I even learned that men were still using straight razors to shave, I had purchased a couple of water stones to sharpen tools that I have around the house. One is a 1K and the other is a 6K. Do you think I could use the combination of the 1k/6k/12k and get a good honing job in or should I go out and purchase a 4k/8K specifically. These water stones are expensive and I wouldn't want to go out and spend any more money if the honing stone combination that I already have should work good. I appreciate any feedback on this.
 
Take my advice with a grain of salt, but I would say you might want to consider getting an 8 or 10k stone at the very least, and probably a 4k as well. Here is why:

1. You mentioned sharpening tools. Using a waterstone as a dual purpose tool and razor stone can apparently cause problems according to what I have read. Tools (and even just knives) are harder on a stone than a razor is, and according to what I have heard you will find yourself lapping those waterstones a lot more frequently to maintain a nice flat surface to hone razors on. Over time you will wear the stone down a lot more if you use it as a dual purpose stone.

2. Brodirt mentioned he was going from 6k to a 12k and it took him hundreds of passes to make the transition. Having something in between would be highly beneficial and save you a lot of time.

You could save yourself a lot of trouble if you got a 4k/8k stone and dedicated it to razors. It will keep you from having to lap your 6k too often, and it gives you a dedicated progression (4k, 8k, 12k) that can take any fairly decent edge from start to finish. If you find yourself doing restoration work, you will probably want to lap the 1k each time you put a blade across it, but any factory edge should be workable from 4k on up.

You've got a dizzying array of waterstone options available to you.
 
Yes another newbie here joining the ranks at B&B. I have been reading through the forums over the last few weeks and have enjoyed it very much so I ended up registering. Since I am a newbie, there is so much to learn and I feel that I have learned a significant amount about wet shaving in just the last few weeks but I see that there is oh so much more to learn. For now I have a question about honing. I have noticed that the standard recommended here is a 4000/8000 stone and possibly going up to 12K or above. I recently bought a 12K to do finishing work on my straight razors but it is my other stones that I have questions about. You see, quite a while ago, before I even learned that men were still using straight razors to shave, I had purchased a couple of water stones to sharpen tools that I have around the house. One is a 1K and the other is a 6K. Do you think I could use the combination of the 1k/6k/12k and get a good honing job in or should I go out and purchase a 4k/8K specifically. These water stones are expensive and I wouldn't want to go out and spend any more money if the honing stone combination that I already have should work good. I appreciate any feedback on this.

Welcome to B&B. What exactly are you sharpening? Dull razors? If so, I suggest the 4/8. Touch ups? If so, I don't suggest any more stones.
 
Thank you very much for the replies. leighton, you asked me if I was sharpening dull razors. Well to tell you the truth I am not sure. I do not think so but not sure since I am new to this all. I do have two razors that I have been using. I bought a brand new Dovo and they claim it to be "shave ready" out of the box but after reading many posts here on B&B, many of them claim that it is rare that a razor is shave ready out of the box. I have another razor that is pretty much a NOS Husgen & Ern that I got off Ebay. Both razors are giving me a decent shave but I feel I can definitely improve on the closeness of shave each of them are giving me through better honing, stroping and shaving technique. Thanks again for the replies.
 
Thank you very much for the replies. leighton, you asked me if I was sharpening dull razors. Well to tell you the truth I am not sure. I do not think so but not sure since I am new to this all. I do have two razors that I have been using. I bought a brand new Dovo and they claim it to be "shave ready" out of the box but after reading many posts here on B&B, many of them claim that it is rare that a razor is shave ready out of the box. I have another razor that is pretty much a NOS Husgen & Ern that I got off Ebay. Both razors are giving me a decent shave but I feel I can definitely improve on the closeness of shave each of them are giving me through better honing, stroping and shaving technique. Thanks again for the replies.

Your going to have to take this suggestion with a grain of salt because I can't say I have no interest in the matter. (wanna-be-lawyer speak)

I think a wise course of action and one that guarantees great shaves would be to send your blades out to a honester. That way your sure of the sharpness of the blade. And you'll have two that are good. Then either buy a third, or only attempt to sharpen one of the two. The other one, keep having the honester touch it up. That way, you'll at least have one great blade at all times.

You'll never need anything less than the 12k and paste that way.

Right now I'm offering free honing for the first razor and I'm only charging $15 for each razor afterwards. Other honemesiter's prices are similar, if not cheaper.
 
I truly appreciate the advice and suggestions! I will definitely keep the option in mind of having my razors honed by someone else who knows what they are doing.
 
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