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What is your go-to honing kit?

I always enjoy reading about the many different kinds of honing stones that everyone uses. There are so many options from which to choose. I have been honing my own SRs for some time and I seem to have settled into a groove with Naniwa stones -- 1k, 3k/8k and then after a while I picked up a Naniwa 12k finishing stone.

What are your go-to honing stones (type and grit)? What is your top grit finishing stone?
 
DMT 600,1200,8000

Top grit finishing stone is a sp 13000, but I have easily a hundred finishers, mostly naturals (down from several hundred). The finest is probably an Arkansas.
 
I have a set of shapton pro's 1.5k, 5k, 8k, 12k and a 3k Naniwa Pro "bridge" stone.

Lately I have been loving the Arkansas as my finisher after the 12k, but I get a really nice edge from the 12k then chrome ox balsa strop.

My most "exotic" finisher is a set of Apache Red and Apache Strata. When I use these I go from the 8k to the Red then Strata.


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Set of Naniwa SS's, and an assortment of Jnats. Go to progression, 1-5k Naniwas, full mikawa progression on either a very hard and fine Okudo hon suita or on a very hard Nakayama kiita. I usually do 2 botan slurrys to 100% knock out all synth striations. Lately I have been finishing on the same kiita with 2 tomos, first a lovely, very hard Nakayama kiita tomo, and last a very dark, very very hard asagi karasu(karasu on the skin) tomo from an unknowen mine. Accually thats the first ever tomo I bought, its also the smallest......definiatly a keeper tho.

If I want to split atoms, I will rub some very broken dry tomo slurry on my palm and strop a few minutes.

Slowly but surely I'm dumping my lower and lower grit synths. I have an Aoto on the way so I'm thinking I can jump to that after my 1k. We will see.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Shapton HR Glass 500 for the 'problem children' and factory Gold Dollars, rarely used, then Shapton Pro 2k, 5k, 8k followed by koma and tomo nagura on a jnat finisher. You can get the Shapton Kuromakus for about half price, same stone but no Shapton USA warranty.

Cheers, Steve
 
DMT 600,1200,8000

Top grit finishing stone is a sp 13000, but I have easily a hundred finishers, mostly naturals (down from several hundred). The finest is probably an Arkansas.

Slice, you don't have any problems with lingering deep scratches when going from the 1.2k DMT to the 8k?
 
If a razor needs it Full Progression - Shapton Pro's 1k, 3k, 5k, 8k, 12k 16K, 30K, back to water only on Coticule to smooth and finish on Tran-ark
or

dillucot Coti progression - Finish on Trans-ark - This has become my preferred method

Daily maintenance: Strop 50 pre-shave. Post-shave 30 cotton / 30 edge leading on Trans-ark / 10 spine leading on Trans-ark / 30 on linen / 60 on Leather

With the above maintenance have no need to re-hone as this keeps the edge fresh
 
Since all I use is a Kamisori now I've had good luck keeping it in shape with a Naniwa Junpaku 8k (snow white flake) and a good piece of Nakayama for finishing. I also use a paddle strop with some CrOx-treated fabric as well for dealing with any micro burr formations...
 

kelbro

Alfred Spatchcock
If a full-service honing is required; 1K Chosera or one of my Washitas usually begins the progression and they end with any number of finishers, depending on my mood that day.
 
4/8K Shapton GS most of the time and finish on a Narutaki or Shinden Asagi with a DN 1200 slurry, 1K if need to correct blade issues like chips and such.
 
Most of the time I just touch up on my Nakayama and follow with linen & leather.

From start to finish I go with a Chosera 1k, Naniwa 3k, then on to the JNATs.
Sometimes I'll use the Oozuku or one of two Okudo's, and finish again with the Nakiyama.
I can use a nagura progression at the end with my Okudo suita but the results feel the same as going straight to the Nakiyama.
 
I rarely need to hone. I have several razors and they are all sharp.

My setup is really basic as well. I have a King 1k, a 4k and an 8k slip stone and some kind of natural finisher as well as some pasted paddle strops.
 
seattleshaver's set-up ^ sounds pretty good to me. With water-stones, I've found a Suehiro 1k/3k synth combo, coticule, and Welsh purple slate to leave a consistently nice edge, touched up on occasion with a Solingen dedicated linen strop pasted with red tube paste on one side and white tube paste on the other.
 
Since all I use is a Kamisori now I've had good luck keeping it in shape with a Naniwa Junpaku 8k (snow white flake) and a good piece of Nakayama for finishing. I also use a paddle strop with some CrOx-treated fabric as well for dealing with any micro burr formations...
Just picked up my first kamisori, with the paddle strop and CrOx do u do sets of 10-1 or the same as a straight. I strop mine like a straight but haven't used CrOx on it yet
 
I don't think I ever 'need' to hone - I just hone. I have no 'go-to' set here really.
I bounce around a lot, test a lot of combinations out, etc. I had to lap an Escher last night so I finished on that. I may refinish it on an Ark tonight. Maybe. Depends on how I feel.
 
I've got shapton glass stones 1,2,4,8 and 16k, a suehiro Gokumyo 20k and a coticule which I cannot get along with yet.
And my first Jnat (an Ozaki Kiita koppa) on the way next week to start playing around with.
 
If I use my shapton glass stones I use 1k, 4k, 8k hc. Followed by either a LV Coticule, Black Escher or Frankonian and possibly follow it up with a Lydian Touchstone. Lately my fave is the Frankonian only using dilucot finishing on lather. Amazingly smooth, keen edge.
 
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