Rethinking my Oily, Semi-Natural Progression. New hone suggestions?

[duke762]

After 3 or more years of honing on Arks and Coticules with oil, I bought my first water stone. A Shapton 1.5k Professional for bevel setting. Although I grouse about using water (phobia) I really love this hone. It leaves such nice looking bevels and apex it makes me want to go straight to an Ark to finish. My Coticules don't seem to leave the apex looking that good and I work in a unknown slate to clean everything up before going to Black/Trans Ark to finish.

The question is what would you recommend between the 1.5k and a natural finisher. Can one stone get me there or do I need 2? I'm thinking that I could take away the Coticule and the slate before going to Akie land with the right hone(s).

I really like the splash and go 1.5 Shapton. Does any one have experience with the Shapton Pro mid-range hones? I would like to stay with splash and go and harder hones that don't wear too fast. No soaking please.

I don't know beans about synthetics and would like to hear what your experiences are with different hones before I jump on one.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I think in theory you can use DMT's dry if you want a synth finish without the water... but I've never tried it. They require frequent enough cleaning as is.


If you plan to just suck it up that you've got to use water and stay with the shapton 1.5, All you really need is a 6k JIS after that then your finisher. Best I've found is the Sigma power, but I'll leave it up to guys who use them more often than I do to provide their recommendations... I use my DMT EE 99.9% of the time.

I believe shapton is not quite JIS rated... they're finer than Norton/Mesh, but coarser than JIS at a given grit rating, so their 8k is probably closer to 6k JIS than their 5k, but my guess is either will work... a little more time on the middle hone vs a little more time on the finisher.

You can also jump straight to a trans/SB ark off 1.5k if you're willing to do a bit of work, but a synth in the middle will speed things up.

 

[global_dev]

I have used a kuromaku 2k and 5k that work as a progression before a finisher.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Newbie Honing Compendium | Badger & Blade

The details matter. Read end to end, including all linked threads. For cheap, get the acrylic plate and the lapping film progression, and then three more acrylic plates and the balsa and diamond pastes to make the balsa progression. For not so cheap and maybe not quite as good, but still pretty good and very popular, a full Naniwa Superstone progression. You can follow the Naniwas with the lapping film and if you do it all correctly, the edge will be every bit as good as film and balsa.

Nothing wrong with oiling a coticule but the coticule is more versatile if you only use water. You could get another nice big coticule to use as your intermediate, then finish on the balsa but a 4 part progression, starting with 1u and ending with .1u diamond. Or go coticule and then 1u lapping film and then the 3 part balsa progression. Lots of options to get you there.

 

[Matt O]

After a solid bevel set, you can use an Ancient Ocean Jasper from Wild Whetstones to get you to your finisher...you can even use it on one side to do the intermediary work, and then finishing work on the other side.

In my experience, finishing with the jasper stone (six different razors now), the bevel near the edge becomes highly reflective (as in a mirror), and the resultant edges are the perfect blend between sharp and smooth for my face.

Vr

Matt

PS. The mirror on the bevel near the edge looks better in person, but this is the best I could show with a cellphone camera!

 

[MO1]

I'm a sucker for jnats. After bevel set on a ha no kuromaku 1k I like to slurry up my suita with 1200 atoma. I can finish on it but it leaves a rather too mellow edge for my taste, so I move on to a harder finishing jnat. But for midrange and prefinish, I love a good suita.
I'm not trying to pull you down another rabbit hole, just sharing ^^
Another mid range synth like the other guys suggested would be best probably ^^

 

[Legion]

How much fun would it be to be a newbie. OP asks an open ended question. Gets fifty different opinions, and none are really wrong.

“Screw this hobby. I am taking up golf”.

 

[Dave Sl8r]

I have used a kuromaku 2k and 5k that work as a progression before a finisher.

What he said.
You’ve already said you like the Shapton 1500. The Shapton Pro 5000 would be the logical choice. I have one and like it, easy to use, and a good mid range stone. The Shapton Pro 8000 would just be icing on the cake. You could then save your finishers for, well, finishing.

 

[Proinsias]

Shapton Pro 1.5k & 5k are a nice combo, all I've used for years before a natural finisher.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Shapton Pro 1.5k & 5k are a nice combo, all I've used for years before a natural finisher.

I agree with this. Since you are getting used to the splash-and-go Shapton pro 1.5k, why not follow it up with a mid-range stone from the same series? As for a 5k Shapton pro jump to an Arkansas stone afterwards, I cannot say from direct experience, but I would think it would fly, perhaps with varied pressure, or by finishing the two sides of a translucent differently. 5k Shapton pro to a coticule used with water (no slurry) followed by a Welsh purple slate used with sewing machine oil leaves a nice edge from my experience.

 

[duke762]

Thank you gentlemen! I it looks like I'll pull the trigger on the Shapton 5k. I can do my bevels and mid range in one wet session and then get all oily and Akie.

Water phobia from 42 years as a tool maker, you just don't fool with steel with wet hands in my profession. I'm oily all day and it's a treat for it to be clean, nice smelling honing oil. Not the usual foul stuff at work.

 

[Matt O]

Congrats on your decision Duke! The Shapton stones are really nice, effective, and consistent.

I did a better job of lapping and finishing my jasper, and broke out my experimental razor above to see if I could refine the bevel near the edge to the naked eye, and under the loupe.

After nine laps on the finishing side I was starting to feel slight stiction. When I hit the 17th lap under gentle running water I felt the nice and even stiction on the down and back portions of the lap.

Under the loupe, I was happy to see that any real discernible scratch pattern was gone, and to the naked eye it is a very reflective mirror all along the bevel near the edge.

I was able to capture it with my cellphone camera. In the first pic you can see the cell phone camera lense on the left near the heel. In the other photos, you can see my Hawaiian shirt along the bevel near the edge.

I know a shiny edge doesn’t equate to a world class shave, but if my initial efforts are an indicator of how the shave will go it should be excellent!

Enjoy the Shapton!

Vr

Matt