Thread: Improvised or DIY hones

Seriously a few years back there were some guys here making barber hones, I forget what with but Chrome Oxide comes to mind. Check some of the old threads. As I recall there were some photos and some looked pretty good. Chrome Oxide is about 30K.

I picked up an old hone that looks like about a ¼ inch of chrome oxide on one side. Looks like a commercial stone. It’s packed away for an upcoming move, I’ll look for it and take a photo.

Hey, some nut was playing around with clay and abrasives, when he stumbled on synthetic stones. I’m sure the razor forum he was on, thought he was whizzing in the breeze.

I think I would go the strop paste route, there are a lot of inexpensive pastes available that could easily make good strops of varying grits, check Kremer Pigments. Or start with metal polish.

So I was thinking…if the world goes to hell on a Bock Choy cart, why would you need to shave?

Oh Yea… the gas mask, Duh!

Marty don't forget you promised a demo of that bevel set on a shingle at the next meet :<0)

They used to use green painted wood - it sharpened a little because of the chrome oxide pigment, but you know that already! Biber brought out a small bench strop once - the leather band on that was painted with green oilpaint too. The french (Hamon springs to mind) used fine timber strips with longitudinal grooves which caught a sharpening paste - a big improvement on the old slats of wood and fine sand!

Back in the day some porch steps were suitable for sharpening - I guess they had to be a quartz rich slate, though.

The American Hone Co from Oleans, NY, produced many of the barber hones at the time for all sorts of people, like C'Mon and Duble Duck. and they had a few recipes - the hones fell broadly in cold ones and hot ones. cold ones used a resin or some other sort of binder and set in a mould, while the hot ones were fired in an oven. A young girl was in charge, and amassed all the recipes, but in such a way that if you weren't in the know you could not figure out how to make them.

Member Randydance knows an awful lot about this - I think he may even have got hold of a lot of old stock and had (or saw) the recipe book - he was going to experiment, but I don't know how far he got. He is always busy with one thing or another.

There was a good attempt made on another forum, cant remember whether it was a knife, chef or blade forum, but they ran into trouble with mixing in ultrafine particles - they do not want to go into suspension, preferring to clump together for some reason best known to themselves!

Regards,
Neil

Slightly changing the topic of this thread, finally found my old waterstones packed in a box with car tools in it, and they're all covered in oil from an oil can someone left half open!!! Does anyone think that there's any hope of rescue for them? Lots of soap and soaking perhaps or should I just see if my MA instructor could give me a good deal again for another set?

Always try to save a hone,,, try soaking in dishsoap & water,,, scrub with a toothbrush,,, then re-evaluate the hone,,,, show us some pics & we can tell you how to proceed from there,,,,

Durn, I was hoping this thread could be the prelude to a new Foxfire edition.
LH stay with it, perseverance wins!

I have been tempted to take a piece of glass and put a CrOx paste on it and hone instead of strop with it but I haven't yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Soak in simple green...can read more by searching the forums

I saw a thread on here where a guy stroped with tooth paste and had a nice shave.
Also following the rock hound thread has me wondering about slate for use as a hone. In particular slate tile.
This is aan interesting thread to me but it seems that most people find it silly to think about.

I finish all my razors on my powder room sink top. Buttery smooth.