Thread: Barber hone?

I see a lot of reference to barber hones around here but not sure what to look for. When someone refers to hones(Norton4K/8K for example) I understand the grit values. Now when you say barber hone I understand it is a much smoother stone, but are there different values or are the "carborundums" and "old swatys" on eBay what a guy should be looking for?

Thanks in advance

yes both stones you mentioned are barber hones

is any one brand better than another?

IME the Swaty made in Austria is very good. Swatys with Yugoslavia or where ever marked on them may be good too but I have no personal experience with them. Other barber hones I've tried that I've liked are itsapeech, C-Mon and the 00 Frictionite that came with the little rubbing stone. I've also got a dubl duck and a couple of Carborundum 101A and 102 but I've never got around to trying them.

Forum member Utopian liked the Carborundum hones but said that the 101 and 102 were the numbers to look for and maybe the 103. Higher numbers are more coarse. What grit any of these are is up for debate. I don't guess anyone knows for sure. I've read from 6k to 12k depending on whose opinion it was. These were meant for touching up a razor between regular honings as far as I know.

Edit; Here is a thread with some more info and grit estimates on some of the barber hones.

Originally Posted by jerald1978

is any one brand better than another?

Answer to your question is yes.
They are a lot differences among them.
from best to worse
frictionate00
cmon
panama
etc etc

Lynn has a video around here somewhere on barber hones if you wish to bone up on the subject, but you cant go wrong with a swaty. Other good names are Pike, itsapeech, shumate, keen kutter,boss. There are many others, but too numerous to mention. Being a barber hone advocate, I thank you for doing your research.

thank god u put up this post! i was wondering the same thing about what a barber's hone is! thank u!

This place is a plethora of information, without everyone here I would be drowning in a sea of ignorance.

This forum has a couple good threads, but I haven't been able to find anything more than opinions based on use.

I own three barber hones and I plan to use each and compare the edges they give as well as their surfaces under magnification. I'll be using my 4k IceBear as a reference point. I hope to get this done next week and hopefully some of the other Barber hone collectors will follow suit and we can get a decent database going. As it is, I have one barber hone that is clearly finer than the 4k bear, one that is clearly rougher, and one that is about the same.

Im hoping I can give a bit more thorough detail once Im done.

Originally Posted by IanS

This forum has a couple good threads, but I haven't been able to find anything more than opinions based on use.

I own three barber hones and I plan to use each and compare the edges they give as well as their surfaces under magnification. I'll be using my 4k IceBear as a reference point. I hope to get this done next week and hopefully some of the other Barber hone collectors will follow suit and we can get a decent database going. As it is, I have one barber hone that is clearly finer than the 4k bear, one that is clearly rougher, and one that is about the same.

Im hoping I can give a bit more thorough detail once Im done.

I look forward to it.Thanks