Thread: Barber hones characteristics

Please people this thread for letting to know your experience with barber hones.
Please include name of the hone, what grit do you think (approx) it close to and your recommendation. Please try to no repetition. if you have suggestion just send to person where you are not agree or agree etc. gl
hope this will be helpful to everyone.

Sham,

I bought several at first and honestly haven't been all that thrilled about them. I think they work fine for occasional touchups as a barber would do but I don't see them as very versatile.
I had a Swaty which was around 10,000. I used it for light touchups but honestly for me after buying the Escher I found it far more versatile and I stopped using the Swaty. I sold it to a new member for what the shipping cost me just to get him started.
The other was a two sided Simmons which being two sided was more versatile. One side was 6,000 the other 10,000 according to the included instructions which was interesting. This hone I did find useful and before getting the finishing hones I used it a good bit. If I were to use a barber hone all the time it would be the Simmons...... I gave the Simmons to a good friend.

I hope this helps answer the question Sham-----

First off, thanks to Sham for taking the initiative to start this thread.

I'm not sure if it really counts as a barber hone (since it's not the normal size), but I started a thread about my Long Swaty here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/basic...ong-swaty.html

There are a number of different Swaty's and they have been said to have varying cutting properties, but maybe someone could match up the characteristics of mine to a corrosponding "normal sized" Swaty so some parallels can be made (I hadn't played with my two small Swaty's enough to say anything conclusive).

Stone is 2 sided. yellow side is finer. This is first barber hone i will let my opinion go.
you can see in picture there are 3 different size and 2 different colors.
1 st one i think is the earliest one.
last 2 has just different sizes.
Brown side will act approximately 3k-4k level will leave deep scratches fast cutter.
Yellow side will act more then 10000 k. will leave very nice edge.
i have used yellow side after 8k then i moved to red dovo paste for 20 laps _chro2 20 laps +strop and shave .Excellent shaving result.
HOPE THIS HELPS.

In the picture i've posted a three line Swaty, an unknown ceramic hone, that performs like a barber hone and a Pike Swaty. Ive also got a regular Pike barber hone, that ive yet to use.

Although, im far from a master honer, to date ive been able to incorporate all three at the end of my honing progression and produce a nice shaving edge...the three line Swaty is the best IMO, however.

Do they perform like my Charnley Forest? No. However, if they were all i had, they would work well and i would be satisfied with my shaves.

Thanks Sham for starting this very cool thread,

Mac

This is one of the finest barber hone i have . it cuts slowly but does excellent work.
2 sided. Made in Chicago 3.$
i will try put everyday 1 barber hone . i am not sure how many i have but this thread will be helpful if rest people will move forward and posting their barber hones. gl

oh geez

I'll be back later to edit this and add pics of the 25 or so I've handled recently

maybe I'll start taking pics of the scratches at 150X and we can compare them all
apples to apples that is

here are a few

reserved to allow me to group post together

Does anyone know what the basic materials, alot of these barber hones were made of? Ceramics being one, i think?

Mac

I have an Apart hone which I will post some pics when I get home. They will have to be cell phone pics. I bought a digital camera for my daughter hoping to borrow it, but she promptly went to visit her boyfriend.

I may have to break down and buy my own.

I used it at the end of my honing even a little after I got my coticule. Since I got my Nakayama and my "Olivia Hone", it doesn't get pulled out much anymore. I do have a group of barber hones on the way and will post some of those when I get them.