Hone recomendations

[Eiverg]

Years ago I started getting into honing. I was barely able to hone a blade to getting a really crappy shave. I went through the stuff I have and starting thinking about what direction to take starting over.
I have a King 1000 stone and some lapping film. I also have some 3M that I think is 3u and 1u. I had a diamond lapping stone that is probably in the garage somewhere. I'll be replacing that since there's no telling what I have used it for. Somewhere I think I have a 3000 or 4000 grit stone that was gifted to me.

My thought is that a new direction might be to pick up 5K and 8K Shapton glass along with a 12K Naniwa. I would appreciate suggestions, or recommendations on whether this would be a decent direction to start in.

 

[Luecke3262]

A huge step up in my edges came when I upgraded to a Naniwa Chosera 1K. My bevels always seemed to come together really quickly and were much more stable.

The Diamond lapping plate I'd suggest is the Atoma 400 it's a bit more expensive than the DMT. None of the Atoma's that I've owned have ever had spikey little pieces of diamond that would leave deep scratches on my stones like the DMTs did.

I'm not the guy to ask about lapping film as I never got into it back when the B&B guys were huge into it. I went the synthetic route for setting the bevel and maybe up to 4K. THEN I finish the edge on natural stones, either with an Escher, Coticule, Jasper, Arkansas, Welsch Slate, or JNATs.

IF you were to go 100% Synthetic, I'd suggest a 1K -5K Naniwa Chosera Pro and then switch to the Naniwa S1 Advanced Super Stones for 8 or 10K and finish on a 12K if you want.

If you wanted to do a more natural progression, you could go 1-5K Naniwa Chosera Pro or even skip the 5K. Then go to a slurried Belgian Coticule from Ardennes Coticule or a vintage(razor tested) all the way to finish, Soft, Hard, and True hard(Surgical Black) Arkansas. These are the less expensive option for "More Natural." Add in the JNAT which I would highly suggest along with Nagura Slurry stones and you can use basically one stone after bevel set, just like with a Coticule.

GRANTED, there are loads of options to get you there, it depends on your price range and the type of edge you're interested in. Personally I like a really keen edge, so I use primarily JNATS or my Jasper. Some like the super smooth edges of a Coticule or Escher. It really depends on what you're looking for.

WITH ALL THIS SAID, personally I prefer Naniwa stones to set the bevel and refine the edge and then a natural stone to finish the edge. Stones with slurry ability or the ability to be used as a slurry base are highly preferred, because they can act like several different stones and cut down swapping out individual stones.

 

[Eiverg]

Thank you for the info, Matt. I think a good plan of attack would be to keep the King 1K for now and replace it with Naniwa in the near future. I'll look into picking up an Atoma and 5K Naniwa in the next couple of days. I can supplement with the lapping film I have for now. I would prefer to finish on natural stone(s).

I remember learning that a finer DMT plate will leave a finer finish on the hone. Is that as much of a concern with the Atoma since the diamond matrix is more consistent? I'm asking because I'm wondering if there will be much of a difference between an Atoma 400 or 600 other than the amount of time it takes to flatten a hone.

 

[Luecke3262]

For a long time I only used an atoma 400 and it fit the bill just fine. Once I started playing with Japanese stones I started dressing my stones. My nagura are dressed at the 140 grit level while my synthetic 1k-5k are at 400 m, and finishing stones are set at 600. It depends on your goal. If removing metal is what you want then a 400 is good, but if you’re wanting to polish finish with a higher grit. You can of course only use a 400 but rub your finisher with a nagura to burnish the surface.

In summary, it matters, but not that much. You can get very granular about this, but what you’re wanting is fresh abrasive to remove metal(bevel set) or less abrasive so you can focus on polishing(finishing)

 

[CBLindsay]

I’ve been happy working mostly with decent quality Coticule’s but found it easier to set bevels (if I have several razors to work on OR have one that needs a major overhaul) using 1000/5000 combo Norton. I have a generic branded 1k I picked up from Amazon or eBay years ago that does surprisingly well. I agree with the idea you would finish on a natural stone, you can do a lot with different slurry dilutions. I’ve even used a coticule slurry on a hard black ark then diluted a little at a time before finishing with a bit of soapy water followed by a light oil and spine leading strokes. The hard ark takes a long time but it delivers a super keen edge.
I highly recommend making a couple super fine diamond pasted balsa strops, they make maintaining an edge really easy and can do a good job putting the finishing touches on a freshly honed blade.

 

[ShawnF]

I have gone through some of the king and naniwa stones as well as a few others. I settled on the kuromaku stones. They are shapton pro ceramic stones branded for the Japanese market. Same stone, half the price for whatever reason.
For finishers, I have a couple of coticules and jnats, but my favorite is an extremely hard and dense asagi jnat.
The ceramics are extremely quick compared to the naniwa stones at the same grits. They are also a lot more durable lasting much longer, and requireing less flattening sessions. They are definitely my favorite for grunt work.