If You Don't Use A Barbers Hone, What Do You Use To Refresh Your Razors?

I touch up mostly with a Thuringian (generic, Hohenzollern or Escher) followed by a Nakayama then Cr2O3 to smooth the edge.

Thanks very much for all your replies.

Despite getting zero votes, I used my Shapton 16K because of the specific info from chess1 and richmondesi. Thanks gents; even without stropping the blade is now nice and sharp now. If I can make it through a shave without having to restrop that will be my answer until....

...I can afford a coticule, which was the most popular.

Thanks again to everyone, and may all your shaves be BBS!

Still love my Chinese stone after a year... it may be a bit overrated "grit-wise" - I think mine is of slightly lesser grit than 12k but no need for CrO with it... if I'm in a hurry I'll just go to the swaty or "canadian beaver" stone, though!

Scissors said:

Thanks very much for all your replies.

Despite getting zero votes, I used my Shapton 16K because of the specific info from chess1 and richmondesi. Thanks gents; even without stropping the blade is now nice and sharp now. If I can make it through a shave without having to restrop that will be my answer until....

...I can afford a coticule, which was the most popular.

Thanks again to everyone, and may all your shaves be BBS!

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And I didn't even vote in the poll

chess1 said:

The question you are asking don't have straight forward answer to it.
There is a lot reason' to use particular stone.
Example.
Price?
Availability of the stone.
what kinda job stone will do?
How hard or easy to use?
so on .
That is why you poll question will have bias.
Now if you want to know how to use your 16k shapton is different story.
shapton 16k very fast cutter(compare similar grit another stones).
Most people makes mistake by doing too many strokes on 16k.
if you have moved to 16k on time then you will never need more then 4-10 strokes.
Hardest to know when to move and from which stone you will move to shapton 16k
They all will have different signs.
i should add this" Try to get Maximum sharpness from every single grit stone. example,1k,4k,8, etc.
If your early stone is norton 8k you will move only when your razor will cut arm hair and hair will fall off . mostly on the blade.
try get this from norton then move to shapton 16k and make 6 strokes you done.strop shave.
what happens if you do instead of 6 ,18 strokes?
shapton will broke down the edge and you will have small chips on your blade.
hope this helps. gl

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Hi GL. Just want to thank you for posting this Shapton 16K advice. I've got one, and I have to confess that I've gradually increased my strokes when using it as a finisher. Now I can change my ways and stop being frustrated with one particular blade I've been having trouble with. I've been overdoing it on the Shapton.

brothers said:

Hi GL. Just want to thank you for posting this Shapton 16K advice. I've got one, and I have to confess that I've gradually increased my strokes when using it as a finisher. Now I can change my ways and stop being frustrated with one particular blade I've been having trouble with. I've been overdoing it on the Shapton.

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If you are worried about doing too many, get a Chinese 12K, then you have to do around 100 on it to do the same thing!!

That's all I have though, it was cheap and it works, just S L O W L Y.

.25 diamond spray on felt glued to wood paddle, and CrO powder and liquid on felt glued to wood paddle.

Probably 5 or so light strokes on the diamond and then the same on the CrO, then Dovo white pasted hanging cotten webbing strap, then latigo hanging strop, then hanging shell strop. The diamond seems too harsh by itself.

But like Seraphim: "I use Dovo white with daily stropping, and that acts as a constant tune-up."

I've been using the Shapton 30K, and I've come to realize that anything more than 3 strokes is pushing it, and anything more than 5 usually begins to break down the edge. It's hard to limit it to so few strokes...

I've been skipping the 16K, but I would limit it to no more than 5 well placed strokes if you are coming off the 8K.

A naniw12k needs to be on this list.

I choose escher though.

Charnley forest. Works great.

Disburden said:

A naniw12k needs to be on this list.

I choose escher though.

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I am with you on the Naniwa.I have gotten some fine shaves off the chinese natural and off nothing more than an 8K Norton on my Sheffield blades.
I find a little CrOx is nice no matter the stone.

About those barber hones ...

They seem to be an unknown quantity. Does anyone know what grits they were made in? Has anyone ever had a virgin barber's hone with markings? Are they natural stones or man made?

There are places where grit count is not appropriate, i.e. natural slurry stones, including Belgian and Japanese, where the abrasive material breaks down and becomes progressively finer as honing progresses. Even on my King 4000X synthetic water stone, if I use a nagura stone to create a slurry and usie a very light touch, I can achieve results much better than you would expect from a 4000X stone.

To me, "barber's hone" is a vague and undefined beast. Do they exist in "fine" or "xxxfine" or any such thing? Didn't barbers ever have to hog off a lot of material on a nicked blade? I can remember when people bought carborundum stones that were marked "coarse, medium or fine". Compared to what? Their idea of fine was 800 - 1000X at best.

More information required. Send me yours and I can tell you if it's finer that a Hard Black Arkansas, a 4000X waterstone or an 8000X or whatever. I don't have the full array at home, but I can lay hands on the full line of Norton and DMT stones with just a phone call. I sure as heck am not going to pay for a smallish stone of unknown qualities when there are so many modern products that can be easily quantified.

[exit rant mode]

Thank you berry much,
Ian

Tony Miller pasted paddle strop.

Edit: Sorry, I didn't read OP's post fully. I didn't realize this thread was for people who DON'T use barber's hones. Many apologies.

I use a (Tonsorial Gem) barber hone like this guy. Easy!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UaQyweJ7qU[/YOUTUBE]

Naniwa 12K, strop on SRD premium I and good enough for me!

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Ditto!

I am truly impressed with the number of folks that own Shapton 30k stones. That seems like a serious piece of honing equipment to me!

I actually just got a barber's hone for the first time yesterday. I did not think the razor I used with it really needed any attention, but it actually seemed to bring the edge up a bit very nicely. I still finished it on CrO powder on balsa and then Dovo white paste on cotton strap, and latigo and shell.