Hey guys I was wondering what is a good start to honing your straight razor. I'm wondering what is a good starter hone and the best techniques in each of yalls opinion.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
Breaking into honing?
- Thread starter Silence do Good
- Start date
There are so many ways to do this, and each to their own.
Personally, my starter set was a King 800- Norton 4k/8k- Cnat- Crox. That worked for me for a long time. When I moved to more expensive stones I was able to sell the Norton easily (not so available in Oz) and kept the King for knives. The Cnat I still sometimes use, I think I got a good one.
Personally, my starter set was a King 800- Norton 4k/8k- Cnat- Crox. That worked for me for a long time. When I moved to more expensive stones I was able to sell the Norton easily (not so available in Oz) and kept the King for knives. The Cnat I still sometimes use, I think I got a good one.
What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to maintain a razor/s honed by a pro where you know the bevel is set properly. Or, are you trying to take a vintage find from the antique store from bevel to finish? What is your budget? Once you determine your goals and budget, guidance awaits you. I would suggest the former is the enlightened path. Start with a finishing stone and learn how to create a finished edge that suits your taste. Once accomplished you can move backwards all the way to a bevel setter such as the acclaimed Chosera 1k. Other paths include a one stone wonder such as a Coticule that is capable of bevel to finish. Take your time and read read read. It will save you money.
You'll get as many answers as we have members...probably more. As Avenolpey said, to really help you out, we need to know budget and goals to give a proper response.
Assuming you want to go from bevel to finish, but have two alimony payments, a kid in college and a dog with a chronic digestive disease, then film is what you want. Cheap, cheap, cheap and effective as can be.
On the other hand, if you are single and childless and were typing this at an original French Provincial desk that you had shipped back from your summer place outside Avignon while finishing off that last bottle of '45 Haut Brion, then I'd suggest starting with a chosera 1k, a striped Iyota and then some flavor of Nakayama with a full Nagura progression.
If you fall somewhere in the middle, the recommendation that Legion made is precisely what I started with. The King 1k, Norton 4k/8k followed by Crox. It works. Nothing fancy and it isn't free of problems, but the price is reasonable and it just works. You could also look at either of the previously mentioned bevel setters and follow those up with a Coticule.
The one thing I might say that is counter to what you'll hear from most people is that it's widely believed that starting with synthetics is easier than natural stones because "they're easier and more consistent". I used to say that myself. Now I don't believe it. The very easiest set of stones for me to get an edge on, a really good edge in fact, were Jnats. The reason one doesn't start with those, however, is that it's a big investment and without a lot of upfront reading, you just don't know what all the different words mean.
Assuming you want to go from bevel to finish, but have two alimony payments, a kid in college and a dog with a chronic digestive disease, then film is what you want. Cheap, cheap, cheap and effective as can be.
On the other hand, if you are single and childless and were typing this at an original French Provincial desk that you had shipped back from your summer place outside Avignon while finishing off that last bottle of '45 Haut Brion, then I'd suggest starting with a chosera 1k, a striped Iyota and then some flavor of Nakayama with a full Nagura progression.
If you fall somewhere in the middle, the recommendation that Legion made is precisely what I started with. The King 1k, Norton 4k/8k followed by Crox. It works. Nothing fancy and it isn't free of problems, but the price is reasonable and it just works. You could also look at either of the previously mentioned bevel setters and follow those up with a Coticule.
The one thing I might say that is counter to what you'll hear from most people is that it's widely believed that starting with synthetics is easier than natural stones because "they're easier and more consistent". I used to say that myself. Now I don't believe it. The very easiest set of stones for me to get an edge on, a really good edge in fact, were Jnats. The reason one doesn't start with those, however, is that it's a big investment and without a lot of upfront reading, you just don't know what all the different words mean.
I agree 100% with Oakeshott on synthetics not necessarily being easier. Synths can clog, and unless you buy a lot of them leave big gaps between grits. 1-4-8-12 is expensive on its' own and still has some big jumps that require skill to overcome. A small Coticule and a slurry stone can do the same as the above, is cheaper and in my opinion more fun and smoother shaving. A guided JNat purchase can also accomplish the above but as mentioned, requires a vocabulary lesson and trusted source. Fortunately many trusted sources for Jnats frequent this forum.
I found films actually quite difficult to start on because it was easy to make too harsh of an edge. I also ended up with issues I would not have had to worry about if I was using a stone of some sort like the film moving, paper under the film, swapping out 6 different grits and when to do so, when a film is "done", the film being too close to/too far away from the edge, etc.. Without film I would not have started, and understand this is just MHO only and YMMV, but I did not enjoy the film as much as I thought I would after the hype. Maybe it's because everyone makes it sound too easy?
I just started on JNat, have three honing sessions under my belt and I have not yet achieved what I would call "good enough." That being said, the JNat is not all that difficult once you start honing on it BUT despite all the good help here, there is a HUGE learning curve up front and that "up front" is up to an including buying one's first stone. There's a psychological hurdle to it. First of all none of the words make sense. When you say Naniwa 1K, you can figure out pretty quickly that it's a stone of 1000 grit (leaving out the FEPA, micron, ANSI, JIS discussion for just a moment) and that can be compared to a stone of 4K as being more coarse than the latter.
You (anyone) can't deny that there is a romanticised attachment to JNats and using the Japanese terms. For some reason we get all school girl weak in the knees for a good Japanese word. Take "Kamisori" for instance. Most western shaving people think the Kamisori is a deadly straight razor with no folding handle able to be used only by the most pure of heart. To a Japanese man a Kamisori is a razor, and the term includes Mach III's. We romanticized it and made it harder to understand and even made it wrong.
Imagine if we described JNat honing like this:
I honestly spent 4 hours over the weekend looking up the words and Kanji for Koma, Mejiro, Tenjyou, and Botan and a few others. If I wanted a Shapton all I would have to have done was Google and grab my credit card.
To the OP ... understand it's one hell of a lot easier to pay someone to hone your razor. If nothing I have said scared you off yet then keep reading all the ideas. Like the word "coticule?" Cool, go that direction and learn it. The idea of perfectly rectangular blocks speaks to you? Synthetics are your new hobby. Want to talk about the various grades of Unicorn farts and how they affect the natural stones? JNat is in your future. Feeling like a rebel? Find Seraphim's thread and go get some film. All of them will get you there. You will however never be the same once you start no matter where you start.
I just started on JNat, have three honing sessions under my belt and I have not yet achieved what I would call "good enough." That being said, the JNat is not all that difficult once you start honing on it BUT despite all the good help here, there is a HUGE learning curve up front and that "up front" is up to an including buying one's first stone. There's a psychological hurdle to it. First of all none of the words make sense. When you say Naniwa 1K, you can figure out pretty quickly that it's a stone of 1000 grit (leaving out the FEPA, micron, ANSI, JIS discussion for just a moment) and that can be compared to a stone of 4K as being more coarse than the latter.
You (anyone) can't deny that there is a romanticised attachment to JNats and using the Japanese terms. For some reason we get all school girl weak in the knees for a good Japanese word. Take "Kamisori" for instance. Most western shaving people think the Kamisori is a deadly straight razor with no folding handle able to be used only by the most pure of heart. To a Japanese man a Kamisori is a razor, and the term includes Mach III's. We romanticized it and made it harder to understand and even made it wrong.
Imagine if we described JNat honing like this:
I honestly spent 4 hours over the weekend looking up the words and Kanji for Koma, Mejiro, Tenjyou, and Botan and a few others. If I wanted a Shapton all I would have to have done was Google and grab my credit card.
To the OP ... understand it's one hell of a lot easier to pay someone to hone your razor. If nothing I have said scared you off yet then keep reading all the ideas. Like the word "coticule?" Cool, go that direction and learn it. The idea of perfectly rectangular blocks speaks to you? Synthetics are your new hobby. Want to talk about the various grades of Unicorn farts and how they affect the natural stones? JNat is in your future. Feeling like a rebel? Find Seraphim's thread and go get some film. All of them will get you there. You will however never be the same once you start no matter where you start.
Just curious, is the DMT 325/600 just for lapping?
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Acquire a 1k bevel setter, Naniwa Chosera, Naniwa SuperStone, King 1000, Shapton Pro 2k (Shapton doesn't use the same grit scale as Naniwa) are the usual suspects.
The next most efficient addition would be a coticule. You can go from 1k to finish on it. The downside is the learning curve can be steep, and large ones are expensive but smaller ones are quite reasonable. A coticule is attractive even if you only use it to replace everything between the bevel setter and another finisher of choice, and you can get a nice one much cheaper than a synthetic progression in the mid grits. A very versatile stone.
If you want to go synthetic, a Norton 4k/8k or a Naniwa 3k/8k (they don't use the same grit scales) can be your mid grit, possibly finisher.
If the coticule or 8k synth isn't getting you where you want to be, add Crox, a Thuringian, a Suehiro Gokumyo 20k, or a JNat afterwards. Cheapest is Crox but you can easily over-do it so they say (I don't use it), Thuringians can be unbelievably expensive (A labeled 2x6 Escher went for over $1,200 on eBay), the Gokumyo is pricey for a synth (~$275) but would last a lifetime. A small JNat might be the best for value and ease of use.
Cheers, Steve
The next most efficient addition would be a coticule. You can go from 1k to finish on it. The downside is the learning curve can be steep, and large ones are expensive but smaller ones are quite reasonable. A coticule is attractive even if you only use it to replace everything between the bevel setter and another finisher of choice, and you can get a nice one much cheaper than a synthetic progression in the mid grits. A very versatile stone.
If you want to go synthetic, a Norton 4k/8k or a Naniwa 3k/8k (they don't use the same grit scales) can be your mid grit, possibly finisher.
If the coticule or 8k synth isn't getting you where you want to be, add Crox, a Thuringian, a Suehiro Gokumyo 20k, or a JNat afterwards. Cheapest is Crox but you can easily over-do it so they say (I don't use it), Thuringians can be unbelievably expensive (A labeled 2x6 Escher went for over $1,200 on eBay), the Gokumyo is pricey for a synth (~$275) but would last a lifetime. A small JNat might be the best for value and ease of use.
Cheers, Steve
or knives. 
