First Time Buying a Hone?

[Nicholas Eldridge]

I have acquired a beautiful collection of used or antique razors, none of which are shave ready. I need to buy a hone but want to know what are some of the best brands. What grit should I start with? How many hones do I need? Can the same hone you use for your razors be used to sharpen kitchen knives?

I appreciate all the help in advance,
Nicholas

 

[lasta]

Times have changed, but when I was straight shaving, a Norton 4000/8000 and a finisher was all you needed. You can use it for your knives too, but keep one side properly lapped (as flat as possible is essential for honing) and only use the other side for other duties.

I've since ditched the Norton and settled on a ~5000 grit mudstone, a MST Hunsruck/Thuringen used with slurry, and a Woodcraft Chinese 12k for finishing.

A Coticule was bought for curiosity about 10 years ago, but all that did was fill the gap between the 5000 and Hunsruck, never used it much.

Nothing else needed for the past 17 years.

 

[Legion]

If you want to go with hones (there are other options, but I’ll let the usual suspects bang on about them) you will probably need more than one hone, possibly three.

Something around 1k to set bevels, a finisher, and probably something to bridge the gap between those two.

The first decision is if you want synthetic or natural stones. Personally I always like to use a natural finisher, but as a beginner you might find using synths for the first two might be easier.

 

[Legion]

If I was starting out knowing what I know know, I would probably do a Shapeton Glass progression up to 8k (because they are easy to use and reliable. They are also good for knives), then jump to a natural stone to finish. Which one? I dunno, I probably have at least a dozen different types I use, and they all work, but just feel and perform a little differently.

IMO, get variety from finishing hones, and consistency from everything leading up to that point.

 

[rbscebu]

What is your location?

What is your budget?

Setting yourself up for honing a straight razor (SR) can cost you from under US$100 to US$1,000 or more. It is best to not use your straight razor hones for knife sharpening but you can if you don't mind the extra work in lapping your whetstones flat after each knife sharpening. Having separate whetstones for each is better. Honing a straight razor (SR) has little in common with honing kitchen knives. It is best if you forget everything you know/knew about knife sharpening when you start to learn about sharpening a SR. There is more to it than you probably think, although it is not too difficult if you concentrate and understand what is happening.

There are three main types of honing medium that can be used in sharpening a SR:

1. Lapping films (cheapest to set up and easiest to learn).
2. Synthetic whetstones (more expensive than films and require more maintenance than films).
3. Natural whetstones (can be even more expensive but may require a bit less whetstone maintenance).

You could also hone using a combination of all three of the above.

If on a tight budget and have a lot of SRs to hone, I would suggest as a SR honing beginner you start with;

• a 1000 grit Chinese synthetic whetstone (about US$10),
• a smooth flat ceramic tile at least 300mm x 300mm (about US$1),
• some 120 grit wet & dry sandpaper (a few dollars), and
• a lapping film setup (about US$50).

Honing SRs with lapping films will teach you a good grounding in SR honing if you wish to later venture into higher end (more expensive) whetstones. The ceramic tile and sandpaper are used to lap the whetstone flat.

 

[rbscebu]

As none of your SRs are shave-ready, I would recommend that you get at least one of them professionally honed so that you know what a properly prepared SR feels like to shave with. Not knowing where you are in the world, here is a list of some people who can hone one of your SRs.

Honemeister

IntroductionThis page is part of Joel's Interactive Guide to Straight Razor Shaving. This list is intended to list all the active Honemeisters by country and region. The list was

www.badgerandblade.com

The main thing is to get someone who is experienced in SR honing and shaves regularly with a SR. No one else will do!

 

[Legion]

As none of your SRs are shave-ready, I would recommend that you get at least one of them professionally honed so that you know what a properly prepared SR feels like to shave with. Not knowing where you are in the world, here is a list of some people who can hone one of your SRs.

Honemeister

IntroductionThis page is part of Joel's Interactive Guide to Straight Razor Shaving. This list is intended to list all the active Honemeisters by country and region. The list was

www.badgerandblade.com

The main thing is to get someone who is experienced in SR honing and shaves regularly with a SR. No one else will do!

This is a good point. Your first razor should always be done by someone with a lot of experience, then you have a benchmark for the ones you do yourself. Without that you are flying blind.

 

[JPO]

I have acquired a beautiful collection of used or antique razors, none of which are shave ready. I need to buy a hone but want to know what are some of the best brands. What grit should I start with? How many hones do I need? Can the same hone you use for your razors be used to sharpen kitchen knives?

I appreciate all the help in advance,
Nicholas

Shapton glass and Naniwa pro are considered really good for knifes and SR's.
If I had no limit in budget, and I was only using synthetic stones, I would get:
Naniwa 1k, 3k, 5k pro, 8k Fuji/snow white and Naniwa 12k super stone.
The 5k is nice to have, but not needed.
You have two useful sides. So use one for knifes and one for razors.

The 2k pro can be a really nice alrounder for kitchen knifes, and is only marginally slower then the 1k.

Alternative two:
Shapton gs hr 1k, 3k, 10k and 0.85 micron shapton gs7 for finishing (Naniwa 12k can fit in here).
The 500 gs is also nice to have for knifes.

If you are only honing/sharpening carbon knifes the shapton korumaku series is nice.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I have acquired a beautiful collection of used or antique razors, none of which are shave ready. I need to buy a hone but want to know what are some of the best brands. What grit should I start with? How many hones do I need? Can the same hone you use for your razors be used to sharpen kitchen knives?

I appreciate all the help in advance,
Nicholas

Do you want to be a lifelong student of honing, trying everything under the sun, and acquiring a breathtaking selection of the most highly sought-after stones in the razor world? You are in the right place. Lots of enablers here. If you want bare bones basic stones, and you want to hone found in the wild razors from scratch, then you need a very coarse stone for the heavy lifting, maybe a 320 grit Shapton Kuromaku. Optionally, add a 600 grit Naniwa Chosera to the 320. The 1k Chosera makes a good bevel setter. To go cheap, instead of the 320 and optional 600, get a Norton 1k, the large one. The 1k Norton is 1k on the ANSI scale, not the more commonly referenced JIS scale. It is a bit coarser than what most of us call a 1k. For a low grit stone, it wears slowly but it still cuts fairly quick. You will want to follow the 1k Norton with a 1k Naniwa SuperStone to clean up the bevel a bit. The 1k Naniwa SuperStone is widely respected as a bevel setter. Your finisher can hardly be any better than the Naniwa SuperStone in 12k grit. A very easy stone to use. In between the bevel setter and the finisher, you want one or maybe two intermediate stones. I have the Naniwa 3k and 8k for that. Honestly I do not like the Naniwa 3k but I got it and I am too cheap to buy another in that range right now. The 3k loads up VERY fast with swarf and it does not rinse clean like the other SuperStones. You could try a Norton 4k and that should bridge the 1k to 8k gap nicely.

If you want to get off cheap, consider lapping film. You got to get the right stuff, though. You will need a good plate and I would not try to skimp on the plate. There are cheaper objects you can get but I recommend a piece of cast acrylic from TAP Plastics, 1.5" x 3" x 12". It will last forever so don't mind the sticker shock. This is thick enough to hone in hand and keep your fingertips out of the path of the razor. You can use red resin type wet/dry sandpaper for heavy steel removal and bevel setting if you like. Lately I have been using the 1k Norton after the 320 Kuromaku as needed, then 9µ, 3µ, and finally 1µ lapping film, followed by the 3 stage lapped and pasted balsa progression. If you only hone your own razors then you might not want to spend a lot of money on the stones that you will seldom use, so sandpaper isn't such a bad choice for the entry stages. Film tends to wear out after only a couple of razors when used for edge repair and bevel setting. However, for intermediate and finishing stages, it is great! And no stones to lap!

If you want a complete system that will give you a very good edge on your first or second attempt, see the following thread: Newbie Honing Compendium | Badger & Blade . I will warn you ahead that to get best results, you must be willing and able to follow detailed instructions exactly with no guessing, substitution, addition, omission, etc. Read the entire thing, and read the threads linked within the main thread. This style of honing is called "The Method". It holds your hand and walks you through things instead of allowing you to learn learn learn. The Method is not learning. It is doing. It is cheap, and it is the fast way to start getting better than professional quality edges. No zen, chi, mojo, etc required. Many newbies begin with The Method, and then branch out to other styles.

You COULD jump right into the deep end with Jnats or other slurried naturals, but I would skip them for now.

If you begin with a shave ready razor, and just use it until dull, you can bring it back with one stone, and a good one for that is the 12k Naniwa. It is too fine for kitchen knives, though.

For kitchen knives you could go with a 320 grit Shapton Kuromaku and a 600 grit Naniwa Chosera, and maybe a finer stone such as a 1k Naniwa SuperStone or similar quality stone in 1k to 3k range, but not the 3k Naniwa. IMHO there is no need to go finer than 1k for kitchen knives unless you are a high end sushi chef with high end (like $600 and up!) knives. Your basic Dexter-Russell or Winco commercial kitchen knives will cut beautifully with a nice 1k finish, if you put a nice flat bevel on them. Ditto for Walmart grade knives like I use and abuse mercilessly. You should also have a butcher's steel, which is even more important than stones on a day in day out basis. Stropping on a steel doesn't remove significant amounts of metal from the blade. It aligns the edge where it has rolled over in use, and restores most of the original cutting power of the edge. When the steel will no longer bring the edge back, hit the finishing stone or maybe the next coarser stone in your progression and then your finisher.

 

[Christian1212]

In my opinion I think you should first have your razors honed by a nice member. Try out synthetic edges, natural edges, and film edges. Then when you fall in the Rabit hole hopefully you find the spot you want faster.

I can go into detail on types of edges to try if you want.

 

[cotedupy]

The 1k Norton is 1k on the ANSI scale, not the more commonly referenced JIS scale. It is a bit coarser than what most of us call a 1k.

I've not used the Norton 1k so can't say anything about that stone in particular, but 1k ANSI should be notably finer than 1k JIS...

 

[Slash McCoy]

I've not used the Norton 1k so can't say anything about that stone in particular, but 1k ANSI should be notably finer than 1k JIS...

View attachment 1545049

Hmmmm that's interesting. The Norton certainly feels coarser and leaves deeper scratches than a Nanny Super 1k. In fact to me the Chosera seems coarser than the Superstone. I guess it is all subjective.

 

[cotedupy]

Hmmmm that's interesting. The Norton certainly feels coarser and leaves deeper scratches than a Nanny Super 1k. In fact to me the Chosera seems coarser than the Superstone. I guess it is all subjective.

Indeed! Also obviously stuff like binder and matrix comes into how fine something will effectively finish, not just particle micron size.

(And yeah - I'd certainly agree with you on the Chosera and SS. IME every SS I've used finishes noticeably a bit higher than pretty much any other Japanese synth rated at the same level).

 

[Kyle89]

I won't bore you with advice- I'll just mention my humble little progression. I use a Chosera 1k / Norton 4k-8k / Shapton 8k (trust me, refines the norton), finisher. Finisher varies from a naniwa 12k, coticule, slate. I like them all.

I've gone from the 1k straight to both the coticule or the slate if you want a simplified progression, although the coticule is a little hard to learn at first.

Don't forget materials to lap your hones. A tile with sandpaper works, or you can get an atoma/dmt plate. I like my atoma 400, and use sandpaper on tile as well. Heck of a lot cheaper to use wet/dry.

There's certainly a learning curve when it comes to honing, but you'll hit your stride.