What do you really need and what’s recommended?
This is the 50 million dollar question, as it really depends on the individual. You need to ask yourself the following, what’s your budget? Are you going to be restoring a lot of razors, or are you looking for a basic setup for maintaining a few straight razors for personal use? Do you want the best of the best? Do you prefer natural products for a more traditional approach? Do you prefer high tech abrasives? While there is no failsafe hone combination to/for every new (or experienced) straight razor shaver – the basic principle is the same – varying grits of abrasion to establish, then polish (to a microscopic mirror finish) in stages. What this means, is you should have at least a means of establishing an initial bevel, or edge on a razor. Now, even if you only plan on having one straight razor your entire life, and further are going to purchase it pre-honed or send it off to be professionally honed, you still need/want a hone capable of establishing an initial bevel/edge. Why? Simple… if you happed to inadvertently tap the cutting edge of your razor onto the faucet (or any other hard object), drop your razor, your kids get a hold of it and use it to cut a bunch of paper – or whatever the event may be, you’ll still have to shave… and ideally with your new best friend and prized possession… your straight razor. Trying to establish the edge when you only have say a finishing hone – isn’t practical, as (depending on the stone, if it is even possible) it could literally take 5+ hours of honing to get a shaving sharp edge or remove a nick from the edge, or – it could days, when with the right array of hones, it may only take a matter of minutes, or up to an hour. Having a reasonable array of grits available is not just handy, but essential.
So – at the VERY least… what do you need? At the very least, you’re going to need something around 4000 grit to establish an initial bevel/edge, and 8000 grit to polish the microscopic scratch marks away, left from the 4000 grit. For knives, and most purposes, 4000 grit is considered pretty fine, so with straight razors, we are dealing with incredibly fine grits. The Norton 4000/8000 combination stone (See section 7 – 3 for more info) is the most widely used, and recommended straight razor hone, as it can both establish an edge and polish the edge to a point which provides a comfortable shave. Now, in my opinion this is about the bare minimum, but this doesn’t mean this is your only option, as you could for instance instead get a 4000 grit Blue Belgian hone, and a 8000 grit yellow Belgian hone (also known as Belgian Coticles) or medium and fine spydero hones, and so on and so forth – there are a lot of options. Due to it’s size, price and the quality, for most the Norton 4/8K is the hone of choice.
What is recommended? This gets a little trickier, as it really depends on your budget, options available to you at the time of purchase, etc – but I recommend getting a Norton 4/8K – then another “finishing hone.” Basically a finishing hone is a hone that will further polish the edge after having been honed on the 8K side of the Norton, which will provide an even finer, more polished, and sharper edge, which equates to a closer, more comfortable shave. What complicates matters with finishing hones however, is they tend to be quite personalized… some love an abrasive pasted paddle strop, others a Belgian Yellow Coticle, and so on and so forth. Personally, I would recommend a 4 sided paddle strop, with abrasive diamond pastes in 3 micron, 1 micron, .5 micron, and .25 micron, as it gives you even MORE options (grit wise) and is the least expensive option. Diamond pasted strops are much easier to use than a hone, and even inexperienced straight razor users get superlative results with diamond pasted paddle strops.
Think of it like this.... let's say you want to replicate a $66 Tony Miller 4 sided pasted strop with 3 micron, 1 micron, .5 micron, .25 micron diamond pastes with shapton hones....
Using the least expensive route, here's what you'd need....
1.) $50 4000 Grit (3.68 Micron) Shapton Glass Stone
2.) $100 16,000 Grit (.92 Micron) Shapton Glass Stone
3.) $280 30,000 Girt (.48 Micron) Shapton Glass Stone
You're up to $430, and guess what... you still won't have as micro-fine an edge as you would with the $66 Paddle, as the .25 micron diamond paste equates to basically a 60,000 grit hone!
PROCEED TO THE NEXT SECTION OF THE GUIDE - Section 7 - 2, What does a slurry stone do, and what are they?
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