Honing Stones Recommendations Please

I lap my stones with 400grit wet+dry sandpaper under running water. Lay it out on something very flat. I use an acrylic sheet glued to a piece of marine ply which also serves as a base for 3M lapping film (the fine grades for sharpening razors).

If a diamond lapping plate is in budget that will be a bit nicer to use and cut quicker. I'm pretty sure you only need one for all the stones.

People seem to recommend you don't use the same stone for knives and razors. I suppose you could lap both sides of the 6k and use one for each.

In theory a x2 jump isn't at all excessive so you should be able to go straight to the 12k naniwa from the 6k. The 12k is a very popular finisher.

The next stone I'd personally want to have would be a 1k bevel setter. I'm learning to hone so I find I keep going back to the bevel-setting stage again and again, trying to do better this time. It gets a lot of use. If the bevel isn't right, nothing which comes after will be.

On the other hand, if you're good at honing, you might hardly need a bevel-setter. Regular touch-ups on a finishing stone and maybe some pasted strops can keep a properly sharpened razor going for a very long time. 3M lapping film to take you up to 6k plus a 12k finisher might be all you need.

I think feedback is much better on a stone so they're better to learn on. Once you've developed a good idea of what the different abrasive grades are doing to the edge, you should be able to get good results with lapping film too.
 
People seem to recommend you don't use the same stone for knives and razors. I suppose you could lap both sides of the 6k and use one for each.
If you clean the stone after use - to get rid of swarf - it does not matter what piece of metal you are honing. Stones are not sentient, therefore they treat razors or knives exactly the same.
The next stone I'd personally want to have would be a 1k bevel setter. I'm learning to hone so I find I keep going back to the bevel-setting stage again and again, trying to do better this time. It gets a lot of use. If the bevel isn't right, nothing which comes after will be.
You really only need a low grade hone for restoration work, that is, something like establishing a completely new bevel because of chips etc. If a straight razor needs re-sharpening, it’s unlikely you would need to go lower than 3k followed by a progression of something like 5, 8 and 12k for a perfectly acceptable edge. In my experience, 3k is rough enough to take out the effects of layers of tape quickly - if you are honing a razor that has previously been honed with tape, you need to re-set the bevel so that it meets otherwise you are merely polishing a plane.
 
Mea culpa, I just realised that I made a mistake , I have a 1000 Grain not a 6000.

Would I be better with a 5000 + 12000 or with a 8000+12000.

Quote : I lap my stones with 400grit wet+dry sandpaper under running water
I have just seen a couple of videos on YT that use exactly that technique, it will definately help financially to in the beggining...
 
I have also bought a cheap razor from Ebay for practice.. I reset the bevel using the 1000 and it seems pretty good.. The edge is straight and there are no nicks, it's just waiting on a finishing stone or two :)..
 
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Mea culpa, I just realised that I made a mistake , I have a 1000 Grain not a 6000.

Would I be better with a 5000 + 12000 or with a 8000+12000.

Quote : I lap my stones with 400grit wet+dry sandpaper under running water
I have just seen a couple of videos on YT that use exactly that technique, it will definately help financially to in the beggining...
The general rule is to double the grit size in a progression as this enables the earlier scratch marks to be removed quickly. So if you only hone is a 1k, then a progression of something like 3k, 5k, 12k would work. Jumping straight from 1k to 8k would mean lots of work to remove the scratches - so if you are limited then I would suggest the 5k and 12k.
 
Thanks Rob,

Quote : The general rule is to double the grit size in a progression...

That makes sense, I'll go for the 5 + 12 , cheers :)
 
The general rule is to double the grit size in a progression as this enables the earlier scratch marks to be removed quickly. So if you only hone is a 1k, then a progression of something like 3k, 5k, 12k would work. Jumping straight from 1k to 8k would mean lots of work to remove the scratches - so if you are limited then I would suggest the 5k and 12k.
I fell further into the rabbit hole, I couldn't resist, the temptation was stronger than the dark side, my credit card company love me and I need to find a serious excuse for clicking on the 5000, 8000 and 12000 before my wife throws me out...

Delivery has already begun and I am already in anticipation for this set of Naniwas...

Bought one extra holder to make things easier...
 
I fell further into the rabbit hole, I couldn't resist, the temptation was stronger than the dark side, my credit card company love me and I need to find a serious excuse for clicking on the 5000, 8000 and 12000 before my wife throws me out...

Delivery has already begun and I am already in anticipation for this set of Naniwas...

Bought one extra holder to make things easier...
Ha ha , wait till you get into naturals and what is delivered actual looks like an old rock.
 
I fell further into the rabbit hole, I couldn't resist, the temptation was stronger than the dark side, my credit card company love me and I need to find a serious excuse for clicking on the 5000, 8000 and 12000 before my wife throws me out...

Delivery has already begun and I am already in anticipation for this set of Naniwas...

Bought one extra holder to make things easier...
I'm also fairly new to the honing game. I bought a shapton 12K to refresh my razors and I found it excellent for that purpose. I then delved into restoration and bought a couple of cheap razors from eBay. I also bought some second hand Naniwas (3 + 8k) but I soon discovered that trying to restore a blunt or damaged razor on a 3k takes a LOT of time, with mixed results, so I purchased a Shapton 1K for that. I'm no expert on honing but I can now get a good, sharp edge on the 1,3,8,12 stones. The only advice I can give you is that setting the bevel can take 30 laps or 300 - there's no definitive number. I watched a lot of youtube videos and some advise 50 laps on the 1K to set the bevel, then 20 on the 5k etc but in my experience its not that straightforward, sometimes it can be 300 or more to get the bevel set. It's a learning curve which I enjoy. And just when you think you might have the hang of it you try your procedure on a different make of razor, only to find none of what you thought you knew works !! All good fun. All the best with your restorations.
 
I just received the new stones today, I am amazed at the scary level of sharpness that it is possible to create. I also now understand where all those mirror finished come from..

I didn't really count the number of laps when honing, I just continued until there was almost no deposit left behind.. I would do about 10 -> 15 laps, clean the stones with the green side of a kitchen sponge then repeat... Initially I used each stone after just wetting them down a little, for the last few laps I let the tap run over the stone constantly...


One thing though, the test razor that I honed now feels as though it is almost too sharp and that's without passing it on a strop.... I have the the impression that it removes hair from my arm far far easier than a fresh blade on a shavette .... It seems as though the angle against the skin would be almost half of that of a shavette...Is it just my imagination or does a SR normally require less angle than a shavette ?

Other Question : How frequently do you lap your stones, every time or less ?

Cheers
 
The angle will vary slightly depending on the razor and whether you are WTG or ATG but you should aim to find the angle that slices through hair without skipping over the lather. Having the spine too far away obviously runs the risk of the edge digging into your face. I find thar ATG passes need less of an angle than WTG - again this makes sense when you think about it. The main thing is not to overthink the process - it’s trial and error mainly, and only practice will lead to improvement.

I use a diamond lapping plate to raise slurry and this also keeps the stones level.
 
Rob,

How often do you use that diamond plate and is it a DMT ?
Yes it’s a DMT and whenever I use a stone I use the plate to give a quick clean and also raise a bit of slurry But nothing overly aggressive. I find that using self slurry means that the stone results in a lesser amount of ingrained swarf that has to be cleaned off before next use. It also means that my stones don’t need an aggressive re-lapping. Bear in mind that honing uses specific parts of the stone and the areas not used form the high spots that need to reduced via lapping - and are effectively washed down the drain. By using the lapping plate each time, you are using the high spots to create slurry.
 
The idea of lapping and using the high points as slurry is a very astute idea (y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)

Since my stones are brand new I will wait a month or so before I get a lapping plate.. Until then I won't use them so much .. Thanks for you advice and ideas, it's very helpfull.
 
Any time you're not sure, mark out an edge-to-edge grid with a pencil and lap it off. If some areas disappear quickly but others take dozens of extra laps, the stone wasn't flat. If all the marks disappear fairly quickly it was.

You should soon get a feel for how often you need to do this. I'm still figuring it out myself...
 
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