Thread: Making barber hones

Originally Posted by Howard Newell

I remember reading something about the way they make Norton waterstones in a woodworking magazine a while back. I think it was pretty much the same way you're describing, except they used some sort of binder material, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So no, it's not impossible, but I'm not sure clay would work.

Of course they "forgot" to mention what the binder was. Norton and many other companies have there “secrets” for making products, who’s to say they don’t use some ”special” blend of refined clays (and a dash of yellow#68) to make the hone… but they will never admit.
Ordinary clay may not be consistent enough as a binder but there are plenty of refined clays out there, suitable for a home-made.

How about plaster of peris… that stuff they use to set broken bones, it’s a “clay” too.
Don’t remember the name right now but there is a type of clay used to make crucibles to melt metal, it’s brittle, mixed with an abrasive should make a fine hone (and the clay is easy to get too).
You could probably make a hone with epoxy and aluminum oxide powder… (may not be perfect for a razor but you get the idea, home-made-hone is within the realm of possibility).

Incidentally some industrial grinding wheels (used for polishing steal) are made of rubber and or epoxy resin as the binder.
It may not be practical to “home make” a grinding wheel, as you know those things rotate pretty fast, a lot can go wrong if there is a void, a crack, imbalance or the binder is improperly fired...
A razor hone will not be subjected to that kind of stress... it just sits there in a holder with the blade running over the top.

We would only have to be concerned with the purity an consistency of the binder (the clay) for our home made razor hone.

Originally Posted by spazola

I have tried making hones with various binders but mainly variations of shellac. I have tried dry heat and pressure curing, sintering more or less. I have also tried chemical and heat polymerizations. I have tried solvent and water based solutions.

I have several old references to how grinding wheels were made and have tried to follow along improvising as I went along.

Shellac was used as a binder for various abrasives including optical grinding wheels in the past.

All of my attempts have failed. I am happy with my pasted strop for now.

I will try agin in the future when I feel like tinkering again.

Charlie

Shellac... I think they use it with fine abrasive when polishing armature telescope mirrors.. its been a long time and my memory may be fading so don't quote me on that.

Here are the pics from my last attempt. It was chromium oxide with 20% powdered shellac. I was going for a weak bound porous stone something like a modern manmade waterstone. I sifted the mixture on to an aluminum plate prior to heating in the oven.

I have to show the picture to you guys, everybody else thinks I am a little off for trying to make hones.

Charlie

Originally Posted by spazola

Here are the pics from my last attempt. It was chromium oxide with 20% powdered shellac. I was going for a weak bound porous stone something like a modern manmade waterstone. I sifted the mixture on to an aluminum plate prior to heating in the oven.

I have to show the picture to you guys, everybody else thinks I am a little off for trying to make hones.

Charlie

Hmmm fast cutting hone?, 80% CrO2 sounds a bit high even for shellac... but then i may not know enough about shellac to comment.
If you ever try again please let us know...
I too am thinking abut making a hone... actually a straight razor grinding wheel... two of them.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

But why would you want to make a new barbers hone. They aren't exactly the best hones to use for general purposes anyway.

For the same reason they still make brand new circa 1920 Harley flatheads: it's the final triumph of stubbornness over common sense But seriously; I find barber hones convenient when all you're doing is maintaining 1 or 2 razors. They don't need to be soaked, they're small, they don't need to be lapped very often, they're cheap. If I had to give up my barber hones, I guess I'd try Shapton ceramic/glass or Spyderco, but waterstones are just too much drama when all I want to do is touch up 2 razors.

What I meant earlier is that most pottery clays are abrasive in and of themselves, probably in the range of 40 to 400 grit, which is NOT acceptable for even restoration bevel setting.

Here's a little tip: The American Hone Company, which went out of business about 3-4 years ago, makers of such barber hones as "The Little Devil", "The Reliance", and several others (Tilly aka "red trader" bought out the remaining surplus of hones and has been selling them here and on ebay).
Anyway, this is the same company as Success Barber Supply in Moravia, Iowa still in business. Seems that some little old lady, who was actually trained by Franz Swatty himself (or so I was told), made all of their barber hones herself, from memory. Never wrote down the formulas and died one Christmas day taking all of her knowledge with her. Success, of course, still having all of her equipment, and hone ingredients, tried in vain to reproduce the hones, but failed.

So...you might try and contact the folks at Success Barber Supply and see what info you can get from them. At least you might get an idea of what stuff went into the hones. Maybe with much trial and error, you can re-discover the old barber hone formulas.

Good luck


Scott

From an old book I have entitled "Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas, Processes, and Trade Secrets" gives the following instructions:
Can't seem to flip the attachment the right way!

Originally Posted by JMS

flip the attachment the right way!

Thank goodness you said that, I though my eyes were really screwing up.

Here you go