As of now I have my friends Solingen "The Hamburg Ring" razor and my wifes grandfathers fully restored Henn razor..I use my razors about 1-2x a week..I am thinking of getting a hone..I realized if I want to keep using my razors it seems more of a headache to send em out..especially to my friend who is unable to hone due to past injuries which he never charged me for and he lives in the UK...perhaps it makes more sense to hone em at home 2x-4x a year?...I have been str8 razor shaving for about 10months..my DE razors n blades for 2-3years now...but man o man does a straight razor shave feel good! take me about 30minutes from start to finish not including stropping my razors before n after use...I am watching various ones on ebay which are vintage..but I know they must be re-lapped to be used again..thoughts/comments/suggestions I not looking so spend alot of money on a nice hone..though when I re about dual hones..I get confused..do I need a dual hone...yes..no.. ST
I normally recommend that before learning to hone your razors, you try to refresh them with some Chromium Oxide on the back of your strop or linen strop. You put on a very small amount and then do 10 very light X strokes followed by 50-60 strokes on your leather strop. This will refresh most razors for continued comfortable shaving. When that quits working, I recommend trying either a Barber Hone using 5-7 light X strokes followed by the CrOx and then regular stropping or a finishing stone using 10-15 light X strokes followed by the CrOx and then regular stropping. This could conceivably keep you going indefinitely unless you get an unhoned razor and want to hone it from bevel setting to completion. In that case, there are stones like the Coticule, Japanese Naturals, Shapton, Naniwa, Norton and a bunch of others that will get the job done. It will be a matter of digging in and learning to hone on the ones you think you will like best from the reading you do or recommendations of others. Have fun, Lynn
I went about a dozen laps on my Co table strop and 30x on canvas n leather strops as well...helped the edge get better.. ST
I'm certainly no authority, but the Norton 4000,8000 stone, if you need to really work on your razor seems to be the generally accepeted stone to work from and can give good results. Finishing on the 8000 in a pyramid system followed by stropping can pass the HHT without any problem. At least in my experience. The advice so far is areas I'm starting to explore myself as I just can't leave well enough alone and like all of us is always looking for just a bit more. That's part of what makes this all so much fun. Expensive, yes, but isn't that the nature of a hobby, to throw money at it? Mark
Hmm...well..I am just looking for a hone to re-fresh the razor to life when the green paste doesnt work at some point ST
The problem is that the best way to ensure a good edge is to refresh the bevel, too. the best set-up for you would be a Norton 4K/8K or a coticule. Personally, I would go with a small coticule, like 125 mm x 40 mm.
A lot of people have great success with the little barber hones. You do 5-7 strokes on them and they bring the razor around. Some people use lather on them and some just water. You see them on ebay occasionally and in some of the classified sections of the forums. Have fun, Lynn
