Thread: PIKE American Swaty barber hone test

Here is the PIKE AMERICAN Swaty Barber hone up for testing. The PIKE logo with the fish is Circa 1930s. All indications are this was made in the U.S.A. by Pike and branded with the Pike and Swaty name. That is as close as the similarities get with this one sided clay colored barber hone. Measurements are 5-1/8”L x 2”W x 7/16” H.

Two identical King Midas Extra Good razors were chosen to test this hone. Both razors were taken to a 1K-3K-8K level. One of the razors was then progressed to the approx. 15K level on a much finer stone. The edges were visually inspected at 100X magnification at each interval.

8 X-laps, strokes or passes were made on the Pike Swaty hone trademark side with soap lather to see if it would improve the 8K Norton edge. The edge showed improvement and no sign of a wire edge or deformation when observed again under 100X magnification.

Conclusion, the PIKE American Swaty barber hone improved the 8K edge. This is a hard smooth barber hone that imparted no wire edge or deformation after 8 passes. Performance is similar to the Austrian Währing bei Wien Swaty but the PIKE Swaty produces a finer edge. I would suspect that the PIKE American Swaty uses a different abrasive as the cutting agent. The 15K edge did not show any deformation after 8 passes on the Pike Swaty. This is a very nice effective high performance barber hone.
Mike

Thank you for doing this - we all know how much time and work it takes.

Question - what (if anything) do you do to clean and prep the Barber's hones when you get them.
Assuming that you are starting with hones that don't have any obvious defects (gouges, cracks, soaked in oil etc.) but do you lap or clean them before you start?

Again - we are in your debt...

[QUOTE=MJC;1783339]
Question - what (if anything) do you do to clean and prep the Barber's hones when you get them.
As little as possible.
Assuming that you are starting with hones that don't have any obvious defects (gouges, cracks, soaked in oil etc.) but do you lap or clean them before you start?
Many of the AMC hones tested are Salesmen samples that were never opened. Some of the other hones may have required lapping and preparing the surface prior to testing. A method for lapping barber hones will be posted by the end of the week.
MIke

thanks, very informative, looking forward to more.