Hones - comparison table

The table below offers a quick overview of different hones, their specific features, typical uses, and comparable hones.

Hones - a comparison table

Name	Grit (approx.)	Typical use	Comments	Similar hone
Norton	up to 8k	repair / bevel setting/finishing	The Norton waterstones are made in either a single grit or a combination stone. The grits are 220, 1000, 4000 and 8000. For many years these were the hones most used by members of the old SRP yahoo group and beyond. They are made in an 8x3x1" in single grit stones and in the same dimensions as a 220/1000 and 4000/8000. While the combo stones are cheaper the single grits give you a lot more stone and the 8000 does not need to be soaked before use. The 220, 1000 and 4000 do need to be soaked for at least 15 minutes before use. The 1k is a relatively fast cutter and is an efficient bevel setter. The 4k and 8k used in a pyramid or progressively have proved to be very effective in the hands of a expert honer while being user friendly to the careful beginner. The edge off of an 8k is adequate for a close and smooth shave. A finer stone can be used to further refine the edge for a smoother shave but it is not necessary. Most shavers that hone their own razors or hone for others do take advantage of the many excellent high grit stones available and do go up in grit to finish.
Belgian yellow (Coticule) (no or very thin slurry)	10k	Finishing/Polishing	The Belgian coticule is found and mined mainly in the Ardennes region of Belgium. From the beginning of men using straight razors in the eighteenth century the coticule has been one of the most popular hones for sharpening straight razors. The coticule's cutting medium is garnet suspended in a mud binder hardened over millions of years by heat in pressure it is in the class known as metamorphic rock. The garnet suspended throughout the relatively soft binder of the coticule is the third hardest natural mineral and the rhomboid shape of these garnets cuts the steel of the razors edge in an efficient but shallow manner. This characteristic of the garnet combined with the soft binder releasing some and revealing new garnets may be why the coticule has proven ideal of honing razors leaving a sharp but gentle feeling edge. The coticule may be used with water only as a finisher or if more aggressive cutting power is desired with a slurry formed by rubbing the surface of the coticule with a stone, usually but not necessarily, of the same material. In the recent past many barbers would use lather on the stone as a honing vehicle and referred to their cotcules as soap stones. As with any natural stone it is difficult to place an exact grit rating on them. In general many experienced honers rate them in the 8k to 10k range. Ordinarily because by itself the coticule is relatively fragile to impact it is bonded to a piece of slate for reinforcement. Many years ago the yellow coticule was reinforced with it's blue cousin and glued to a piece of BBW. The coticule is mined along with BBW or Belgian Blue Whetstone. Occasionally the two are harvested in a proximity to each other that enables the quarry to cut the resulting stone combining the two with yellow on one side and the blue on the other. These natural, as opposed to glued, combination stones are more costly due to their rarity and are prized by collectors and honers alike.
Belgian blue (with slurry)	4k	Sharpening	The BBW, also known as the Belgian Blue Whetstone, is mined/quarried in close proximity to the yellow cotcule. In past years the bbw was mainly used for cobblestones, building blocks and such utilitarian purposes. At one time the reinforced backing glued to yellow coticules was the bbw. Later slate became the reinforcement for the yellow coticule when the bbw became a more valuable commodity due to the relatively recent recognition of it's honing properties. Coticule expert and SRP member Bart Torfs of Belgium says that while the yellow is composed of 45% garnet content by volume the BBW has approximately half at 25% garnet content by volume of the rock. This explains the yellows superior performance in sharpening with and without slurry. According to Bart, of http://www.coticule.be/ , using a slurry is the most effective way of sharpening with the blue. This releases the garnets more freely for more aggressive cutting. While the use of slurry with the yellow is much more aggressive due to the higher garnet content, slurry with the lesser garnet content of the blue seems to yield a sharp edge more easily than a slurry with the yellow. The yellow's slurry being so much more highly concentrated with garnet that it can have a dulling effect on the thin edge of the razor. Using the blue in conjunction with the yellow whether in a natural combo, glued or as two independent stones, many honers find using the blue with a thick slurry to sharpen and the yellow with water only to finish to be an effective way to hone their razors. A thick slurry on the yellow is more effective at bevel correction while in the hands of an expert diluting the yellow's slurry can bring the edge to the same level of sharpness as the blue and then go on to water only for the same finish. Still the blue has it's place and is an effective stone when used with slurry. Again it is difficult to give a grit rating to a natural stone but it seems that the general consensus of those who insist on doing so rates the BBW in the neighborhood of 4k. According to Bart due to the relatively sparse distribution of garnet the blue is less effective without utilizing the slurry.
Escher	12k	Finishing	The stones made by the Escher & Sohn company in Germany have gained an almost legendary status among razor honers. So much so that they, like Kleenex or Coca Cola, have become the name applied to a whole genre of their type. Mined in the Thuringia area of central Germany, these metamorphic stones are composed of an abrasive quartz embedded in chalk. The famed Escher stones came in different colors with yellow green, blue green, light green and dark blue being the colors denoted in labels by the Escher company. Other hones made by Escher with different labels were, The Celebrated German Water Razor Hone,Barber's Delight,and Barber's Choice. There may have been others that are not known by this writer. Another well known Thuringan hone was the Hohenzollern. These were also found in yellow/green, blue/green and dark blue and are considered on a par with the Escher by the few honers lucky enough to have one of these vintage hones. In more recent years the Muller company continues to harvest hones from the same area. There have been varying reports on the quality of these with some users having very good performance while at leat one vendor, finding occlusions within a large percentage making them unsuitable for honing razors, discontinued his sales of them. These hones are fine finishing stones. The labeled Eschers suggest using them with a slurry and they were supplied with slurry stones of the same material. Some honers find it effective to begin with a slurry and dilute as they go down to clear water to finish while others use the hone with water only. One way or the other these are wonderful finishing stones for honing razors to a sharp and smooth edge. If there is a consensus on the equivalent grit to a synthetic stone it seems to be in the area of 12 to 15k.
Charnley Forest	north of 12k	Finishing		Escher, Japanese polishers
Spyderco
DMT			Man made ultra modern Whetstone, diamonds bonded in a metal plate. very slow wearing no lapping needed no clocking only little water. All DMT "stones" are very fast cutters. On there own web page they suggest that 5-10min on a whetstone take only 20sec on the DMT's. Can be coarse and cause microchips until bedded in using light strokes on a metal object. Only coarser grit DMTs should be used for lapping other hones. Finer grit DMTs can have their cutting surface stripped off by wetstones, especially if a slurry is allowed to build up.
Barber hone	12k	Finishing	Good for touching up shave ready razors that are just starting to dull
Chinese 12k	12k	Finishing	Cheap water stone. Hard, slow cutter
Sun Tiger	up to 8k	repairing/bevel setting/finishing	cheap man made stone of decent quality. soft, fast cutter needs regular flattening.
King (Ice Bear)	up to 8k	repairing/bevel setting/finishing	man made stoe. soft, needs regular flattening.The Japanese sharpening stone manufacturer Matsunaga, in Osaka, makes the brands King und Sun Tiger is the oldest- and best-known maker of Japanese waterstones in the West.	Naniwa
Global	up to 8k	repair/bevel setting/finishing	good stones but overpriced
Shapton M5		general sharpening	The M5 series is Shaptons cheap household series for occasional home use.	Global M5
Shapton M24	up to 5k	repair/bevel setting/finishing	The M24 series is for chefs and carpenter(not for the ones with fine tools as for cabinet making for example)
Shapton M15	up to 12k	repair/bevel setting/finishing	For finer tools. hard stones, short soaking, fast cutting and hard wearing.
Shapton Lr250	up to 5k	repair/bevel setting/finishing	huge ceramic fired stones 10-7/8" x 4" x 1". for anyone who need general sharpening power
Shapton Hippo	up to 12k	repair/bevel setting/finishing	huge ceramic fired stones 10-7/8" x 4" x 1". on a interchangeable plastic base which makes the system look like the animal	Lr250
Shapton Pro	up to 30k	repair/bevel setting/finishing/polishing	ceramic abrasives in a resin binder.quite hard need less flattening. cuts fast. no soak needed just a bit water on the surface.work without slurry.known for their finer edge. however the pro series has a reputation for too fast wearing for their stones 1k and under. also the 15k pro compared to the 16k glass is more expensive and gives less feedback. also the finish achieved is somewhat mat compared to the more traditional waterstones
Shapton Glass	up to 30k	repair/bevel setting/finishing/polishing	cheaper then the pro series but very similar performance.ceramic bond on a tempered glass plate. abrasive layer is slimmer but harder wearing. it needs to be established how the price difference is justified
Naniwa Super Stone	400 thru 12k	all phases of razor honing	The Naniwa super stones have gained quite a following in the razor honing world and deservedly so. These 8x3 stones come in grits of 220, 400, 1k, 2k, 3k, 5k, 8k, 10k and 12k. The length and width lend themselves to easily doing circles if that is a technique that you use in honing razors. According to Naniwa Technical their super stones are made from white fused aluminum powder, formed by chemical reaction bonding. I've read that the binder is resin based. I suspect it is a polymer resin but I'm not sure. For best results the stones should be lapped to flat with a pencil grid before use. These stones a very nice tactile feel when honing. They do 'load up' a bit and keeping a Scotch Brite pad handy is a good idea to rinse and clean them intermittently. These can be used for coarse work in the lower grits such as chip removal and on to bevel setting at the 1k level. Whether honing with the pyramid method with the 3k/5k, with Lynn's preferred 5k/8k or the progressive method, working up through the grits, the Naniwa super stones have proven to be very effective from sharpening to finishing a straight razor. It has been said that Naniwa brought these out to compete with the Shapton glass stone line and that they are softer than the Shapton glass. Considering that these companies are manufacturing these stones for tool sharpening perhaps this softer mixture accounts of the excellent results gotten from super stones with straight razors.
Naniwa Chosera
Naniwa Diamond
Suehiro und Cerax
Arkansas
Thüringer	10K	finishing/polishing	natural waterstone from the same region as the escher comes from. hard stone of excellent quality perfect for fine edges and quite cheap.	escher, coticule
Jinzo
Akatzuki
Miyakoshi Toishi	Shobu(1K), Sakura(2k), Syoki(3K), Yamaichi(6K), Kitayama(8K)	bevel setting/finishing	Miyakoshi is the manufacturer and has a good reputation for sharpening kitchen knifes. Toishi means waterstone. These stones are ceramic bound (except the Kitayama) and therefore are hard wearing and need to be soaked. Kitayama Toishi is a resin bound stone. It is therefore very soft and has a more homogeneous structure for a very fine finish and sharpness. The Kitayama requires no soaking; a splash of water is enough as is with all resin bound stones.
Honyama Stones(Mt Shoubudani)	Amakusa(800), Binsu(1K), Aoto(2K), Awaseto(8K), Awaseto Oishi(12K)	finishing/polishing	Most famous natural waterstones in japan, both Nakayama quarry and Shoubu quarry are Honyama. These are of excellent quality, but are very expensive. Only Amakusa(800) and Binsu(1K) are fairly cheap. It yet needs to be established if it can give a finer edge then the coticule or esher to certain steels (e.g very hard steels) to justify its price. This type of stone has a long tradition for sharpening Katanas and Sushi knives.
Nakayama		finishing/polishing	Nakayama is the name of the quarry the razor finishing hones come from. The quarry has been closed since 1967, so the stones are very expensive not only because of their fine quality. These are very hard and mostly slow cutting stones but some examples do have fast cutting power; watch the description.