Thread: Three line Swaty

I've got an identical Swaty like yours... mine's even complete with a chip on the back as well! For fun, I've taken one of my razors and solely using the swaty with it when it needs a touchup to see how long I can keep it going with just the swaty. The razor was shave ready last March, and I use that particular razor once per week. Every 6-8 shaves it needs a little touchup on the swaty... and I limit it to six X strokes.

Being that I shave with it weekly, that means I've got approximately 36 shaves with that blade so far. Not a lot, but by using the swaty in this fashion, it still shaves as if it were honed just yesterday. Obviously, I'm pretty impressed with this little hone. Who knows, maybe I'll get a couple years before I need to take that razor back to a full honing.

Have fun with it.

I had that similar hone in my tool box for many years before I started straight shaving. It was a wonder for tools. There are at least two European 3 line Swaty's tht I am aware of. Depending of the the national boundary lines at the time. Marborg Austria was the other one I have and a couple that were slightly different in form factor/size. The folks that made Swaty's came to this country and continued manufacture for a few years at Olean NY. and re-organized as American Hone Company before the move to Iowa.
Love it and use it!
~Richard

Shaved off this Swaty tonight. It was actually a quite nice shave. Could I use this as a finishing hone, I'm sure I could.

Originally Posted by Wid

Shaved off this Swaty tonight. It was actually a quite nice shave. Could I use this as a finishing hone, I'm sure I could.

When I first started honing I had the 4/8 norton and the 3 line Swaty the old barber gave me. I used the Swaty after the 8k until Randy encouraged me to make sure the razor was shave ready at the 8k level. I went with that for awhile and eventually picked up a 12K Shapton Pro ...... followed by a bunch of others. Anyway, the shave off the Swaty was good IIRC ....... it was a long time ago.

I knew I had 2 of these but only one is the 3-line. They just sit in a box.. Nice to see other people like hones as well. Not many people in my area or any of my friends like them.

Originally Posted by Mikeinri

I knew I had 2 of these but only one is the 3-line. They just sit in a box.. Nice to see other people like hones as well. Not many people in my area or any of my friends like them.

If a guy justs wants a barber hone, he can't do better than Swaty and a 3 line is no better than a Marburg 2 line. If all it is for is to hone razors one is as good as the other, if you are a hone collector, than you need both.

Originally Posted by Mikeinri

I knew I had 2 of these but only one is the 3-line. They just sit in a box.. Nice to see other people like hones as well. Not many people in my area or any of my friends like them.

The best is the "am Wein" the other is the American Hone Company 3 line Swaty which is not of the same quality. About a two line one.
The other Good Swaty is the Marburg Austria one. Just the difference in the placement of a national boundary same company and same grits. A "Pike Swaty" is a good one also. American Hone company but a quality one for certain.
Have fun and only a few..like four, strokes on it to refresh the blade edge.
~Richard

Snarfed my first (and probably last, if I don't drop it) hone off ebay for under ten clams last week. Pictures were terrible and it looked like it had chunks of dried eggs and bananas and stuff stuck on it from before I was born. Turns out, for the Swaty-literati, to be a three-line, WAHRING bei WIEN/(Austria), no box, in pretty good shape. The back is nice and the front, except for a couple of small, shallow tool marks, was fine. Dawn soap and water got off the grunge which made the stone appear it had been used with oil; more scrubbing, some medium-fine emery paper to smooth out a couple of very small edge-chips and to chamfer the edges then Ajax cleanser and a brush to finish.



First try, eight laps on a razor due for a little refresh, returned the blade from end to end to a hair-popping monster. Will shave-test tomorrow but, from the arm-hair feel, it ought to be just right. Heretofore I've been living happily with a 250/1000 King, DMT325, Norton 4000/8000, CrOx on nylon, white paste on linen, linen and leather. The shaves off the 8000 have been very good especially since I developed skills with sequential periodic post-honing mega-stropping and a daily linen/leather routine with 25- and 60 laps. It's so funny how I write sometimes - cracks me up. Not sure if it is concise or crazy sounding.

I am interested to see if:
a. Franz ups my game any by improving on refresh mega-stropping; or

b. will Franz equal the mega-strop refresh in less the time; or

c. is mega-stropping going to outlast and outshine Franz with all razors?

Anyone offering odds?

I confidently choose "a."

I maintained a set of razors with nothing but a Swaty and a Carborundum 102 (with pretty much random use between the two) for over a decade.

Absent an edge catastrophe, a Swaty and a strop is all you need to keep your razor shaving sharp forever.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I confidently choose "a."

I maintained a set of razors with nothing but a Swaty and a Carborundum 102 (with pretty much random use between the two) for over a decade.

Absent an edge catastrophe, a Swaty and a strop is all you need to keep your razor shaving sharp forever.

Well.... that's encouraging.