Thread: Honing with a barber hone and a dmt

Just a question regarding honing steps.
i have a vintage carborundum 152 barber hone and a dmt 600/1200 diamond plate that serve as my edge setting and honing stones.
while I have used them to develop a shaveable edge on my two starter razors after significant lapping I'm wondering as to why so many on here say the barber hone is just for touch ups between proper honings.
if you maintain good spine contact through the 1200 diamond and then the different grits of the barber hone, have you not achieved the appropriate grit steps?
Presuming the BH is around 4k on the coarse side and 8 on the finer side? Or is the barber hone the wrong grit range to finish the edge you set with the 1200?
I'm probably going to get a 4/8k norton combo next time I'm near lee valley but for now these seem to work.
just curious.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Just a question regarding honing steps.
if you maintain good spine contact through the 1200 diamond and then the different grits of the barber hone, have you not achieved the appropriate grit steps?
Presuming the BH is around 4k on the coarse side and 8 on the finer side? Or is the barber hone the wrong grit range to finish the edge you set with the 1200?

I'm wondering as to why so many on here say the barber hone is just for touch ups between proper honings.

.

I think you probably have the answer to your own questions there


Set the DMT aside, Don't use the coarse side of the BH and imagine the fine side a bit more fine


Now using that imaginary slightly higher hone and only that hone use that to hone an e bay razor

Thanks for the reply Glen.
So if I start on my dmt with tape on the spine should I leave it on until just before I strop?
On my first go at honing my first two e-blades I removed that tape before hitting the barber hone.
Figured I'd lose that 1degree bevel differential during the last three "higher" grits.

But after honing the ones I just picked up yesterday and leaving the tape on all the way through, then comparing the edges with a surface scope I am seeing, (I think) what looks like an un honed strip right along the bleeding edge of the first two I did. Almost like the lack of tape reduced the angle as expected, but despite a good 20+ laps and circles I never quite removed all that bit of steel right at the tip.

The results on my hones yesterday do support that with the DMT 600/1200 as a start, I am seemingly able to get a very good edge jumping from that diamond plate up to my barberhone152 and then to my strop.
At least to my novice thumb and chin.
Cheers.

Yeah, that tape bevel is funny,, I did some tests on it in the old days with the Norton 4/8 and I figured out that it was pretty much gone after about twenty 4k laps.. I never really tested it much after that as I just wanted an idea what it took to erase it

I have relapped my Carborundum 152 on my dmt and I have a question about the grits.
The darker grey side is the coarser grit yes?
It should be obvious but the feel has me doubting myself. And under the scope it looks like the darker side is more porous but damn if they don't feel awful close..
Thanks all

I chipped the crap out of a nice henckels on a DMT once... I'll never use one again... Barber's hone though, I use weekly. I wanna say my go to is a Pike two side.... One side is green (Fine) and the rougher side is black... works great for touch ups.. right up there with my coticle, but not as buttery... maybe more like my Thurigen..

I thought I was doing the right thing buying this diamond plate for bevel setting and hone lapping.
Learning here that it may be too aggressive and I have probably put more scratches on these blades then I needed to restoring the edges. And to boot I have probably under honed on the barber hone since I read that it should only take a few strokes and not to exceed six so have tried to keep the strokes low. I don't think I'm anywhere near overhoning these yet.
Took a few pics under the magnifier but they don't transfer we'll but basically I still see lots of diagonal slashes on all the blades I have been restoring, even though I can get a shave now.
I figure the dmt was good for the hone re:lapping but it's made it hard to really know for sure that I've got the coarse and fine side figured out. My hone is dark gray on one side, light gray on the other.
I suppose I could try to just hone one side of a blade with one side of the stone, and the other with the other and compare scratch patterns..
Cheers.

To figure out the grits. Get two spoons, use one on one side and one on the other. Lick both spoons if you can tell the difference good, move on to hiding the evidence from SWMBO. After all she may think that you need help.

This is only slightly in jest, and it would work. Some have claimed that licking the hone can help.

But if your scope can resolve at 100x you should be able to tell the difference based on the scratches left. What the difference would look like depends on the grit of the two sides.

Jonathan

So i am looking at buying a new honing stone clearly as this will drive me nuts if i dont.
There is a 4k/10k Japanese stone on eBay from somemoutfit called metalmaster that runs about what the 4/8k norton does at the local lee valley.
Think it's worth waiting the 2weeks for the extra 2k grit the Japanese stone offers? Anyone ever buy one from them?
Leaning towards the trusted norton name myself and I'd like to have the new stone before the weekend as I'm hopefully going to get to the Ontario meet in Tillsonberg.
Opinions always welcome.
Spent hours on just the fine side of the barber hone last night trying to smooth my edge on the Boker, It is smoother, but not as uniform as I think it must be to achieve a proper edge..