First bit of honing on my own hone

Hi

The other day I picked up a hone for twenty pounds on ebay its an old vintage Carbonundum 101A barbours hone as I have been in the market for a hone for keeping my Dovo Solingen All Steel stainless steel straight nice and sharp.

Anyway I did a bit of reading up on here and did some google searching and have found out that the hone shouldnt need lapping and is a fast cutter so only requires a few strokes with some lather on the hone. Anyway yesterday I used my cheap Wilkinson Sword hog hair shaving brush and cheap Wilkinson Sword shaving soap bowl (I use a pure badger brush with proraso now for shaving which a great improvement) to give the hone a clean and then let it dry.

Tonight I lathered up the hone and gave the razor a few strokes about 7 each side on the hone pushing the hone forwards in an x pattern before cleaning the razor drying it and giving it a strop. The razor is cutting arm hairs better now but I will wait until tomorrow morning for the shave test when I have a bit more stubble but it should be interesting as I thought the blade was starting to get a bit duller and was pulling a bit more especially ATG on my jaw line.

Attachment 67085

Thanks for the post. I hope it does what you need it to. I'd love to see more pics of that hone. Is it double sided (rougher on one side than the other) or the same grit on both sides?

Thanks,

Grats on your new hone, carborundums are known to be nice ones. You were correct only to give it a few light strokes. A good stropping now and I expect your shaves will be much improved. Let us know how it worked.

I will be keen to hear how it shaves. My dovo silver steel is just starting to pull ATG I was thinking about putting it on the hone.

Hi I try to take some more pics of the hone and put them up. The other side of the hone looks to be the same grit but has some dirty looking marks on it. I have read a post where someone recommended using oven cleaner to really clean the hone up but that sounds a bit drastic.

Looking forward to tomorrow morning when I can try it lol since starting using a straight I do look forward shaving, just could do with a little more time in the morning ;)

I had a shave this morning after honing the blade last night and I must say that the razor did feel sharper and smoother and was dragging a lot less. The shave it has given me this morning is BBS except for a few little places that give me trouble basically the bit of my neck near my jaw under my ears and from there across the line under my jaw where the hair grain is sideways on so I have to shave ATG sideways from my ears across to my mouth. The skin near my ears is very pliable and hard to stretch and get the razor into and I am also afraid of cutting myself there as it is hard to see as well. That is down to my technique atm but the razor is much better for the hone. :)

Anyway for those that were interested here are a couple more close up shots of the Carborundum 101A barbours hone first the top and then the bottom.

Attachment 67148

Attachment 67149

Thanks for the pics. Glad it's working out for you too. I have the same problem under my ears (across the jaw line I pull the skin over, and then stretch it under so I get it on my cheek passes and my neck passes) and to get that spot I hold the scales straight with the blade (like stropping) and carefully go up toward my ear. I haven't cut my ear yet making that stroke, now I'm looking for wood to knock on! :D