Thread: "Apart" hones

I found a "Apart" hone it is one of those reddish hones with the name stamped into one surface. The hone was quite misused. I tried cleaning it with a nagura stone witch it made quite messy. So I lapped it on a diamond plate using soap and water as a slurry. The hone feels very smooth, has a very fine grain when viewed with 30x.

Water beads up on the surface.:

Does anyone know about these stones?
Is this normal or could the stone be impregnated with oil?
If the stone is impregnated with oil is it ok to use?

Originally Posted by jreiter22

Water beads up on the surface.:

i have never heard or read any barber hones to use with oil.you need to make sure it has oil it could be doesn't have oil just water stays on the surface. i do remember long time ago some srp member's able to move oil out of the stone. search i am sure you will find that thread. GL

IIRC it is a barber hone used for touch ups and is rated as one of the better ones. I've never done it but I've read that oven cleaner is good to get the oil out of a natural stone. A synthetic may be a different story. The stuff might harm the binder so if I was going to try oven cleaner i would test a small spot and make sure the stuff won't eat the hone.

Thanks I will keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by jreiter22

I found a "Apart" hone it is one of those reddish hones with the name stamped into one surface. The hone was quite misused. I tried cleaning it with a nagura stone witch it made quite messy. So I lapped it on a diamond plate using soap and water as a slurry. The hone feels very smooth, has a very fine grain when viewed with 30x.

Water beads up on the surface.:

Does anyone know about these stones?
Is this normal or could the stone be impregnated with oil?
If the stone is impregnated with oil is it ok to use?

It is normal for water to form beads on the surface of barber hones, aparently they aren't porous.

I found some info on Badger and Blade arcive the Apart is very fine. They did not cover if it was porous. So your reply answers that question.

Just doing some thinking .... being an old school pro tattoo artist I solder loose needles together for using to apply tattoos. The way that you do color/shading needles is by holding the group on a coarse pocket stone, applying flux and tacking the group before further soldering.

The stone absorbs the excess flux. When you are done you wrap the stone in a paper towel and the next time you pick it up to use it all of the flux will have leached into the paper towel. So... wrap the hone in a paper towel and leave it overnight. If there is any oil in it you will see evidence of it in the paper towel. Hope this is helpful.

I have a Swaty that I use occasionally. I have found that by adding a little dish soap with to the water that you put on a barber hone it helps to keep the water on the hone instead of beading up and falling off. I figure this should be fine for the stone as most barber hones can be used with lather instead of just water. I also feel that this gives the barber hone a more slick feel and may make it act slightly finer as the soap is providing a small buffer between the razor and the hone. This is my hypothesis only, as I have no proof to back it up.

The reason I don't use lather is because usually my honing sessions and shaving are done at different times.

Good luck,
Zac