Thread: Making barber hones

I did a search & came up dry. Has anyone ever thought about making new barber hones? It seems like all you should need is a couple grams of diamond powder mixed into the right kind of clay, pour in a mold, bake in the oven, voila. Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult.

Originally Posted by Johnny J

...mixed into the right kind of clay

That's the clincher.
That and the mixing would have to be very well done with absolutely no air entrapment, otherwise the firing will cause cracking and other types of imperfections.

It seems simple enough, check out clay pottery.
People do this kind of thing every day (firing clay/ceramic artwork).

If you mix the right kind of clay with the abrasive, shape to size, fire up in a kiln you got your self a home-made-hone.

Mix ratio anywhere from 20% to 50% by volume abrasive.

Then what IS the right kind of clay, because I know how general pottery clay fires up and it's way too hard and abrasive itself to work for a hone.

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

Then what IS the right kind of clay, because I know how general pottery clay fires up and it's way too hard and abrasive itself to work for a hone.

I suppose if its hard then it should be great for a hone.
But seriously you can "adjust" the mix of abrasive to clay... less clay, more likely the clay will "brake off" to expose fresh abrasive.

And of course there are many different types of clay out there.
Look at the Swaty.

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.

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

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

I would think that the binder material/clay alone could make or break the hone, regardless of grit material.