Thread: Did barber hones ever work?!

Damn!
Johnny, I wish I had thought of this sooner...
You have the perfect thing to re-surface your Swaty--your other Swaty! Go to the honing section and read JoshEarl's hone lapping sticky. Do it that way but replace the DMT or sandpaper with the other Swaty. Just rub the two together under running water. That should get you a pair of flat and smooth hones!

Wow. You guys are amazing. You're right again.

Since I've been using these hones for coarse bevel-setting (i.e. hogging off large amounts of metal), I went back to the sandpaper just to convince myself that the hones are still flat, & to make sure I'm past that gray swarf crap that seems to build up on bevel-setters. I did 220 grit, then 600. Then I rubbed the stones together under a drizzle of water until I could not feel any scraping sensation--it felt like I was rubbing two pieces of wet glass together.

This made a HUGE difference. I can see it with the jeweler's loupe. The scratch pattern is not as fine as the Chinese 12K, but you can actually shave off it now--they are legitimate finishing hones. (I'm not sure where the Swatys are relative to the Lithide hone, but they're close).

So apparently Puffah is right again: Swatys are hard enough that if you lap them with wet/dry, the scratch pattern left behind by the sandpaper makes the hones seem unnaturally coarse.

As for the Cushioned Strop hone & the Gem hone, I do not think these are defective. The C.S. hone is advertised as a coarse hone, & the Gem as a medium, which is why Tilly chose them for her 3-hone set. So apparently these hones are doing what they're supposed to do.

Probably, if I had to, I could get by with just 1K wet/dry, the C.S. hone, a Swaty, and the Chinese 12K. But I like the Lithide hone despite its smallness, so I'll keep it. It could be handy for travel. Besides, HAD is a one-way phenomenon :-)

Thanks again. You guys rock. I love this place.

I think too often guys go lap crazy with stones. I originally had a small collection of barber's hones and the only one I have left is the swatty 3 line. I found all of them to be pretty fine finishers. I had a Lil Devil which was the coarsest and it worked for lapping the others. My original point is I usually don't lap stones be they new or NOS as long as when I eyeball them they look straight and they hone good. Once they start to not perform then I worry about lapping.

Hi !

My father was born in 1903 and shaved all his life with a straight razor, he died at 78.
He had only had one stone, a Swaty marked :

FRANZ SWATY
WAHRING BEI WIEN
(AUSTRIA)

I saw him use it once in all my life (I was around 6 or 7) he then told me that he used it once or twice a year and only gave 5 to 6 laps using shaving cream as a lubricant.

He had 3 razors. A King Cutter - a Red Point 917 (marked Anton Wingen Jr) and a Carl Rader 87.

I never saw him use anything but the Carl Rader and he shaved every day. He also had only one hanging strop and he only rubbed it with his hands to maintain it (he may have put shaving lather on it from time to time, I'm not shure anymore).

In his 70's he felt his strop was too slick, so he simply turned it over (it was the same leather throughout).

Just to show that shaving with a straight razor doesn't need to be complicated. We (I at least) just complicate things for fun).

I'm now 55, I still use only the Swaty (which is still in mint condition) and still does a great job and to my knowledge has never been lapped. I also have a C-MON barber hone I bought 1976 (I wrote the date March 15, 1976 in the cover of the box). I used it only a couple of times, I don't like it very much.

And BTW, I prefer the Red Point.

Nice day to you all !

McKie

I love this post! Welcome McKie! It proves that sometimes we go out of our way to make it harder than it is.

Originally Posted by McKie

Hi !

My father was born in 1903 and shaved all his life with a straight razor, he died at 78.
He had only had one stone, a Swaty marked :

FRANZ SWATY
WAHRING BEI WIEN
(AUSTRIA)

I saw him use it once in all my life (I was around 6 or 7) he then told me that he used it once or twice a year and only gave 5 to 6 laps using shaving cream as a lubricant.

He had 3 razors. A King Cutter - a Red Point 917 (marked Anton Wingen Jr) and a Carl Rader 87.

I never saw him use anything but the Carl Rader and he shaved every day. He also had only one hanging strop and he only rubbed it with his hands to maintain it (he may have put shaving lather on it from time to time, I'm not shure anymore).

In his 70's he felt his strop was too slick, so he simply turned it over (it was the same leather throughout).

Just to show that shaving with a straight razor doesn't need to be complicated. We (I at least) just complicate things for fun).

I'm now 55, I still use only the Swaty (which is still in mint condition) and still does a great job and to my knowledge has never been lapped. I also have a C-MON barber hone I bought 1976 (I wrote the date March 15, 1976 in the cover of the box). I used it only a couple of times, I don't like it very much.

And BTW, I prefer the Red Point.

Nice day to you all !

McKie

Awesome! Perhaps this should be made into a Keep It Simple Stupid, Sticky?

I'm a minimalist by nature myself. I only have 4 different barber hones and the Chinese 12K. However, there are a few external factors that do complicate the issue.

-- If your father never taught you how to shave properly, you end up doing a lot of hunt-and-peck because there's nobody to just tell you what to do.

-- If you're a noob & you keep ruining your edge by using too much pressure during shaving & stropping, you need to have enough hones to recreate that edge from scratch until you stop screwing up.

-- If you're a maniac about getting the perfect shave, you need to do a lot more fiddling.

-- Some of us were born with beards that will not allow an edge to last for a year (or even close).

If you already know how to shave & you won't ruin your edge & you have someone else hone for you & you're satisfied with an 8K-10K edge, then you can go forever with just one hone, one strop, and one razor. (If I had to choose a hone, I'm partial to the Lithide).

I would not classify RAD and HAD as complication--these are things we do for the love Also, since barber hones are no longer made today, there's a temptation to collect them, especially when you see a nice one, because "Who knows if I'll ever see one of these again?" The same is true of vintage razors with unique characteristics, like W&B. Our grandfathers did not have this temptation because these items were commonplace & probably sold in the drugstore.

Interesting stuff!

Recently I lapped 2 Swaty's. They were both one color when I started. After I lapped them I then started to rub them together dry. They have gotten much smoother but now they are 2 colors!, kind of a pebbly effect, and not as fine as before lapping! I will continue lapping them against each other and see if they get smoother and if they become one color again.

P.S. I will not be lapping barber hones again unless it is needed.

I vote for a Sticky on this thread.

I discovered when lapping my two barber hones that the Pike Swaty was noticably softer than the three line of text Franz Swaty. The Pike left much more residue with the same pressure and number of passes over the sand paper than the Franz. I deduced the three line is a harder hone and more suited to finishing. That said I have used the Pike to take my first ebay straight to shave ready (it was all I had at the time).
I'm going to try rubbing them together under lightly running water to see if the glaze from the lapping will be reduced or eliminated. The Pike belonged to my Grandfather so I would like it to be as nice as I can make it. I'm afraid that hone sat in a box on a closet shelf with some other of his items for 20 years without my knowing what it was used for.