Thread: Standard Razor hone?

so I bought this on the bay, and I think I can use it as a finishing hone after the nortons. Also should I soak this one like I would the nortons or just a bit of water and go? any input would be welcome.
thanks!

It looks like a barbers hone. Generally they are a splash and go. To get a better finish some used lather on them. They are not all the same, some are better than others. I have not heard of that one. A lot of them were produced by Pike for other resellers. I suspect that is what you have there. The good ones are great maintenance tools. You should give it a try both with water and lather to see what you have.

I have seen this hone before. Similar to Boss Barber hone and others priced at $1. No do not soak it. It will not do anything. Clean the surface with soapy water and a rag. Its hard to tell from looking at the surface like that if the hone is in usable condition. A close up pic after cleaning will help tremendously.

You can use after 8k but it might degrade the edge. I have not heard many good things about these particular hones. You will have to find out yourself. Add a bit of lather to hone after 8k and do 6-8 strokes and strop and shave.

Barber hones are hit and miss. You can have a great one 8k+ level and ones that are coarser.

Razor and stone has a nice data base on razor hones. Check there to see if this one is reviewed. Might give you some insight.

There is only a small chance that this hone would improve a razor that had already been honed on a modern synthetic 8k hone like the Norton. There is an extensive set of barber hone reviews on Razor & Stone written by a gentleman who is also a member of this forum. Unfortunately, he hasn't reviewed this particular hone but read a few of them and you'll get the drift. Modern synthetics represent a paradigm shift in performance over most of the old barber hones. However, there are a few barber hones that do rank highly. Good luck with this one and let us know how you go.

well as you can see I've cleaned it up, and the back side looks pretty gouged but the front looks pretty usable there are a few little pits on it but nothing that would render it useless. I tried it on my junk razor (started dull as a butter knife) and got it to cutting arm hair, but it took alot more than 4-6 strokes, I did probably 10 heavy strokes and 8 light strokes to get it there. I think this will be a maintenance hone and nothing more. I can't wait to get the nortons and feel the difference between 8k and this stone. they are supposed to be here next week.

Don't know anything about that particular barber hone but if a person acquires a good one that and a good strop is all you need to maintain a razor for many, many years..................

Well, This is just for ya'll to laugh at my expense.
so Update, I tried taking the junk razor from this hone to the crox then poly web and leather. The shave...did not go well... It wasn't surgery, but it pulled so bad I stopped after a few passes under the chin. I did figure out why my good razor dulled though.
While I was preparing to test the razor I went ahead and used a lather on the leather strop, found only the edges were making contact with leather. there was a bow in the center of my strop! So I steamed up the strop and flattened it back out and re tested with the lather, good as new. but It explains why no amount of stropping would bring the edge back