Thread: Barber Hones Salvageable?

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Some barber hones you don't lap,,,,,,,,,,
The Koenig,,,,,I would pick an edge & lightly chamfer it with a DMT ,,, if it turns to a muddy slurry & chamfers easily/fast,,, then its done, as Utopian said it is deteriorating.

Why don't you lap them

A lot of barber hones are "coated" with an abrasive that does not go through the entire hone. lapping it , reduces its cutting ability.

Because there not stone.

Barbers hones are made of mystical resins, concrete, smashed pottery and space dust. Each company had a different recipe for making the hone and they guarded their secrets. Some are resins and cured, others are baked and more ceramic. Some companies only laced the faces of the hones with abrasives, others mixed it into the whole stone.

A ceramic stone might be fine after lapping, a resin one may just turn into a horrible mess and never go smooth again or worse it could be soft cured and stuff be very rubbery inside. There is no way to know and no way to guarantee the results with lapping them. You do the edge test because if you do get a stone that is going to fall to bits you still have a nice looking ornament. A stone that looks all mashed up has 0 resale, and is only good for the bin.

It doesn't mean barbers hones are bad, A lot work very well. You just can't treat them like a regular hone with a constant abrasive through the block.

Modine has a huge list of barbers hones on another forum. With reviews and appraisals.

http://www.razorandstone.com/forumdi...r-Hone-Reviews

He posts on here as well so it would be worth PMing him to see what he thinks.