Thread: Norton Pike barber hone

Yes, you did well & the fact that you got a box in decent condition is a plus too,,, Thank you for sharing it.

Thanks for the many encouraging replies.

I've now lapped the hone on 360, 600 and 1200 W&D. Went easily enough but a few stubborn scratches required extra work.

Any recommendations before use? I have a black Arkie that needed burnishing with a steel edge before use and was wondering if these types of hones also required something like that. The Norton has a much softer matrix than novaculite and would therefore work on the principle of hard abrasive particles embedded in a softer substrate - unlike the Arkansas stone. I would like to get advice from folks with specific experience on the Norton hone. The instructions supplied by Norton do not refer to any need for preconditioning and suggest the hone can be used either dry or with lather.

I don't have the Norton, but have lapped and used a fair few barber hones recently. If it's very soft I'd steer clear of the chisel and just let repeated razor use bring the stone to the optimum. If it's fairly hard then you can do the chisel burnish but do it lightly with razor pressure only first and then test by honing a razor. If the edge is pretty rough then give the chisel another go with a little more pressure and try it again.

I'm not sure if you have the instructions but I'd follow the instructions given as to whether to use the stone dry, with water or lather or with oil. If you haven't got them maybe one of our other members does.

I have had to experiment in the past to see what worked best with barber hones that were missing instructions - some will not work well with water and are better dry or with oil. You'll know if you have one by trying water - you'll see tiny bits of steel stuck on/in the stone - this is called pinning. If this happens STOP immediately or you will embed the steel so strongly you'll need to re-lap the stone to get it out. Switch to oil and most of this will come loose as long as you didn't embed it too deeply.

Regrettably, I have never used a Norton barber hone. However, I strongly suggest that you should not put oil on it. Also, no burnishing should be needed for this hone.

I was lucky enough to have 2 of these Kings Of Barbers Hones. The first one was just lapped like you did and it worked fine afterwards, under any circumstance that this hone should be used with oil, and no burnishing needed to make it usable, especially if your eventually sell it.

A barbers hone like this one that was made years ago could be very prone to be unusable if the binder start to break down, it is quite common. The second one i got for a song im still working on because of this exact problem, the binder is week on both sides and will need a lot of lapping to maybe make it usable. That said if you want to eventually sell it, i would leave it as is right now, they are a lot of fun to play with and will leave a wicked edge on a razor.

Originally Posted by Martin103

I was lucky enough to have 2 of these Kings Of Barbers Hones. The first one was just lapped like you did and it worked fine afterwards, under any circumstance that this hone should NOT be used with oil, and no burnishing needed to make it usable, especially if your eventually sell it....snip...

Just for making sure!
~Richard

Thanks Richard, no oil.

Luckily, no binder breakdown is evident. I've now used the hone (only a few stokes on a previously honed blade (Shapton 12k finshed)) and while it felt a bit rough, the edge passed the well-known hair tests easily after stropping.

On the subject of finishing hones feeling rough, my perception of roughness may be due to my long (only 4 years or so :-) use of the Norton 8000. That hone has been described as feeling "gummy" and certainly, the Shapton Pro 12000 - which is really a much finer hone - does feel less smooth in comparison.

Is it possible that the barber hones that people treat with oil and vaseline etc, have fired ceramic binders? This Norton Pike hone does not appear to be a ceramic but it's hard to know.

Yes usually they do. Soft barber hones usually work dry, with water or lather.

I've now had a superb shave from the razor that I touched up on the Norton hone. It seems to have actually improved an edge recently finished using a Shapton Pro 12k. I'm happy.