Thread: Barber hones and petroleum jelly

Modine spends a lot of time working with barber hones & knows them as well as anybody. If he recommends this method & you follow his exact directions, then this should work out well.

I have lapped to this extent, but did not recondition as he did. I did not feel it was necessary, but I don't have the experience that he does. I will break out my barber hones this weekend & take the 6 or 8 that have been lapped & apply this method.

I'll give you my results next week.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Modine spends a lot of time working with barber hones & knows them as well as anybody. If he recommends this method & you follow his exact directions, then this should work out well.

Well, that's what I was going for. I picked the hone based on his reviews and lapped more or less according to his instructions. Grid lapped on each grit twice 180, 220, 400, 600, 1000, 2000, 2500. Now, she's soakin up the vasoline.

I used the method described in the link of post # 10.
I used 6 barber hones to test this method. They stayed in a hot van for about 7 days, taken out,,,wiped off,,,& then washed lightly with a dish soap. Five of the hones looked to improve cosmetically & the surface felt consistent to others of the same brand that were NOS & not treated. I have included photos of two, the other photos did not take well. I will treat a couple more hones soon & show the results later.

Before:



After:



Before:



After:

Seem to improve the surface of my hones(at least in my mind). The BHs seem to suck the blade to the surface (draw?) pretty effectively.

What's your experience honing with the treated hone?

Thanks for the pic.

ps-How does one know something is truly flat with any degree of certainty unless one laps it? I've always wondered. And, since I know of a way of making certain, why wouldn't I employ the knowledge. I'm pretty new to it, so I just try to stick to the basics. And, following a progression of grid lapping, I do notice the surface becoming smoother(more polished).

I have not honed with these treated barber hones. I rarely use my barber hones, I just collect them. I use an old Swaty for my knives & other edges regularly,,,,a NeverDull barber hone to maintain a couple of edges on my travel straights & now I carry a Pike strop/hone to maintain them.

To be certain,,, I guess you have to lap,,but,,,since the barber hones are just stroked 5 or 8 times to refresh,,,I don't feel the need to lap them,,,,unless the surface has problems.

All the stones in this test I did , according to the link, had surface problems,,90% of my barber hones have no issues,, so I don't feel a need to lap them.

Learn something every day.

Seems to have worked out pretty nicely on the Apart(very fine and silky feeling when used with the lather).

I had to wipe some excess vasoline of the 2 line Swaty. Used that as well and it is *not* fine. I would guess it might be a 5K or 6K lever(definitely between Nani 3K/8K as I testing between these two stones). However, I have not lapped and polished the Swaty.

Thre are quite a view differences on the Swatys....have two of them one seems to be very good for touch ups > 10k the other one as you mentioned around 6k...

Siguy,,,I finished "6" barber hones with Modine's method last night. They are sitting in my old car , it gets pretty hot in it during the day. I'll take a look at them in a few days.

This just seems wrong. The metal particles mixed with the oil/grease would clog the stone.
Sounds like a water stone being converted to an oil stone.
The water or oil is used to flush the particles out of the stone to keep the grit sharp.
I may be wrong, but the grease thing seems counter productive.