Thread: Making barber hones

Jello?!? You've got to be kidding.

Gelatin, hide glue, fish glue, rabbit skin glue, they are similar, it is all just a matter of degrees. I have tried to make stones with hide glue mixtures.

The Henley’s formula book is a good one, I believe it has bay rum and Florida water recipes if I remember right.

Charlie

Originally Posted by richardhead

Here you go

"operating in almost complete darkness"... sounds like voodoo...
Seriously though, Bichromate of Potash was used in early photography... and the final instructions says "dry by exposure to the sun"

The other components are easy to obtain (no explosive of other hazardous materials) and you don't even need a kiln.

This whetstone sounds like a plan... was this one of the formulas you tried?.

My Little Devil barbers hone came with a cautionary statement:

"Keep this hone away from hot places. It contains an "easy clean" element which is embodied in the hone bond and which will not stand high temperatures. Do not lay near hot stove, on radiator, nor in window in direct and reflected heat of sun on a hot day."

What could this "easy clean" element be?

Scott

Originally Posted by smythe

This whetstone sounds like a plan... was this one of the formulas you tried?.

I have not made a stone following the plans from the Henley's book.

I did a seat of the pants experiment of mixing hot hide glue and rottenstone (cheaper that chromium oxide for playing around) into a stiff paste the shoving the paste into a mold. I ended up with too much binder and not enough abrasive.

You should try the formula from the book, I am curious.

Be careful with the bichromate of potash (potassium dichromate) not the healthiest thing.

Charlie

Originally Posted by spazola

I have not made a stone following the plans from the Henley's book.

I did a seat of the pants experiment of mixing hot hide glue and rottenstone (cheaper that chromium oxide for playing around) into a stiff paste the shoving the paste into a mold. I ended up with too much binder and not enough abrasive.

You should try the formula from the book, I am curious.

Be careful with the bichromate of potash (potassium dichromate) not the healthiest thing.

Charlie

Thanks, i understand its toxic. I wonder what effect it would have in a hone for a razor to be put on the face? Maybe a good wash of the blade before stropping.

I still believe that very fine clay can make a good hone... or clay mixed with abrasive.
Have you seen the rasiermesser video from Dovo? It was linked by a member here at SRP. Very good info on razor making. The small stone wheels on the razor grinding machine look a lot like clay...

theres also a recipe in the Popular Mechanics Shop Notes for making hones. it's an easy recipe. mix cement and abbrasive and let dry. but i'm pretty sure cement has the same inherent abbrasiveness as clay.

This is a fun project even though I expect it will not pan out. There is a reason many of todays manmade hones are still pretty expensive. Its not even the ingredients it can also be the process, are they dried or kilned? under pressure? Lots of variables.

Have fun!!!

And also the grit size proportional to the price.

If I am not mistaken they used to separate different grit sized by mixing the “sludge” in a tank of water, they let it stand for some time, the heavier (larger grits) settle to the bottom leaving the finer and lighter grits still suspended in the water.
Then siphon the water to another tank and let stand for some time, again medium grits will settle in that tank, they siphon off the water into yet another tank and let stand for the fine grits.
However for each successive tank they get smaller amounts of finer grits… they have to go through tones of sludge to get a usable amount of the finer grits, but there's plenty of the larger grits… low grit hones are cheap(er).

But we should be able to get abrasive of the desired grit size (CrO2 powder), maybe mix with Portland Cement in the correct proportion, add water, kneed the "putty" just like the clay potters do, bake, and we might end up with the only “CrO2Hone” on the planet… oh... and don’t forget to lap.

Sure, they are lots more variables than the simplistic example above, but it shouldn’t be hard to figure out, after all plenty of hone makers out there today... and in the past a whole bunch of people figured it out... with less information than we have today.

I would think plaster of Paris would be more promising than Portland cement due to its softness. According to Wikipedia, Portland cement contains 5% particles in the 40uM range, which would surely destroy your edge.