Boker strop hone combo

[Swerve]

Does anyone have any info about the Broker paddle strop with the hone mounted on the back? My main concerns are is the hone flat? what grit it is or approximately? Are they any good?

[Brontosaurus]

I have one. From what I can tell, it's identical to my Mueller's "Bavarian slate" water grindstone. Perhaps 5-6k for an approximate JIS grit rating. From what I can recall, Boeker says to lap it to 150x and only use 10-12 strokes with it as a touch-up as needed. I lapped it to 220x and use it dry or with lather as it's easy to stain the leather on the backside otherwise. Probably best to use dry as the Mueller's packaging says "never use oil" and the stone itself is relatively soft (easy to lap though).

The Mueller's water grindstone has its critics, since it's not a real "Thuringian" and is not as fine. With a slurry stone, I find it very easy to use, however, and followed by crox, it can deliver a nice edge.

Hope this helps.

[Swerve]

Thank you so much. I was wanting top know because my Mother bought me for my birthday. And when I got it it was just in a Boker sleeve.

[Brontosaurus]

You're welcome. Sounds like you have a great Mom. By chance, I came across my garbage Babylon translation of the German notes that came with my Boeker slate/leather paddle. So I've included them below, for what it's worth. Good luck translating the translation!

Basically you should shave the razors before each pull on the calf leather adjusts itself perfectly = "leathery", in order to establish the deduction of the blade and thus a perfetes smoothest to guarantee the blade. At the "leathers" the knife is flat, with blade and Klingenrucken on the calf leather adjusts itself perfectly placed and then (Important) with the Klingenrucken pulled in advance of the leather. The "leathers" takes place in a circular motion, to the complete blade of the Raiermessers to reach. Each metal side should be 10 to 12 times as described above on the leather be considered.

After about 3 months use is a deduction of the blade on slate necessary. If possible, one should before the first use, the surface of the Schiefersteins Schleifpaper with a fine grit (150) slightly roughen and wet with water. The deduction of the blade on the wet slate happens (Important) in advance with the blade. In turn, is the knife flat on-hook and both Klingenseiten change will be in the deducted on the slate. Also this process occurs in a circular motion and should be between 10 and 12 times for each metal side be repeated. After the deduction on the slate it is essential you have to have the straight razors again leathers. We continue to wish you a lot of joy in the use of its Böker razor.

[Swerve]

Thank you again when it came in the mail someone opened mine and all I got was the paddle and its sleeve. So really and truly thank you.

[mjsorkin]

Oddly enough, I understood that.

Michael

[Swerve]

Well I dry lapped the hone on 220 grit sandpaper then with 800 grit. Soaked hone a couple times in rem oil. Then applied a very small amount so I could see displaced line in front of blade and took a razor that I thought was junk and did about 5 sets of 30 circles then started my rolling x with moderate pressure 15full strokes then light pressure 15 full strokes then 10 no pressure strokes and finally 5 stropping strokes. 10 cromium oxide paddle strop strokes and then about 40regular strop strokes. And the razor was piping hairs like crazy. Also the hone on the boker seemed extremely hard because it produced almost no slurry.

[Swerve]

The boker completely suprised me IM kinda impressed IM gonna try it on a good razor the next time I need to hone.

[Brontosaurus]

Thanks for the follow-up. Most curious as to how you arrived at your subsequent technique. I have compared the Boeker paddle hone with a Mueller's water grind-stone (a Bavarian slate), and I'm almost positive that they are the same stone. Following the latter, the recommendation is to only use water, never oil. Both are relatively soft, to my impression of things. So perhaps when you say that the Boeker hone is hard because it produced no slurry that is because the oil is dampening the action there. Boeker says to sand the stone to 150x and the general recommendation is not to lap a slate above 400x, so perhaps 800x also is dampening the slurry action there. By coincidence, I visited the Boeker factory store in Solingen in late July and was shown one of their paddles. Not mentioning that I already owned one, I asked them what to use it with and was told, "Water."

If you soaked the stone in oil, what steps did you take to protect the leather side? The problem with using water for me is how to keep this from reaching the leather, and I suggested this to the folks at Boeker as well, without reply. So using oil or lather would help in this regard, at the risk of changing the stone's character, for the better, I would hope. I have a vintage Yellow Lake Welsh slate and a "brown Thuringian" Vosgian slate that are used with oil. The "brown Thuringian" in particular is very hard, much harder than my Boeker stone.

[Swerve]

Well see that's why I did oil in stead of water, I was just gonna use it to finish pocket knives and sutch. So what I did is I took a folded up trash bag and inserted it into one of the slots and then spread each end out and coated it down really good with rem oil in the spray can. Then I waited for it to soak in and repeated 3 times then just gave a little squirt so I could watch the displacement. Then I just went by feel in the progression but documented what I did. And the junker, or so I thought, that I honed actually did really well.