What hone(s), paste(s), or spray(s) do I need?

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What Hone(s) do I need?

I have seen this question so many times I thought I would express a few thoughts on the subject. The first thing that you have to decide is what razors are you going to be honing.

If you are only refreshing edges already established by a Honemeister then you need only get a fine grit Finishing stone or a Barbers hone for this.... Either can keep your razor(s) shaving for years. But it seems that even though many of us start with the great intention of have 2-7 shave ready razors, that dreaded disease RAD gets us and we are buying more and more razors.

Once that happens you will need a full set of hones, I will try and not mention brand names here as there are hundreds of threads regarding what everyone uses.

But you will need these basics:

  • A bevel setting stone approximately 1k grit
  • A sharpening stone approximately 4k grit
  • A polishing stone approximately 8k grit
  • And although it is debatable you should have a finishing stone 10k and above....

You have several choices of how to accomplish this set-up whether you go Natural, Man-made stone, or Diamond style, but you are going to have to be able to cover those 4 grit ranges. There really is no true short cut here if you expect to take Razors from e-bay, antique stores etc.: from butter knife dull or damaged, to shaving sharp you are going to end up needing these types of stones.

Just some of my rambling thoughts on the subject...[1]


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