Thread: Swaty grit and feel question

I recently bought a bargain ($10) 3-line Swaty off eBay, my first! It had a sizable chip on the main face, but was pretty clean on the rear side. I figured it was worth a try at saving. So, I lapped it with a DMT XX-Coarse, then Coarse, then Extra Fine. The chip was deep, and I ended up removing over 1/16" off the main face. Before and after photos are below.

I noticed a few things. First, my understanding of 3-line Swatys was that they were about 10K - 12K grit, and were finishers. The more mint ones I've seen pictures of are shiny and deep brown. My lapped Swaty isn't shiny or deep brown, and has a noticeable "crunchyness" to it when honing, like a DMT. It feels much more aggressive than 12K. It has little silvery flecks in it when looked at under strong light.

Is this "crunchy" feel normal? Did I over-do it on the XX-Coarse DMT, and need to keep polishing it with the Extra Fine? The edge I got off it isn't one I would shave with, but I finished the edge nicely on a Nakayama after the Swaty. In my inexperienced hands, it doesn't seem as fine as a Coticle, and I read all the time about people who use Swatys as finishers after Coticles, so I'm puzzled.

Swaty as purchased:



The same Swaty, after I lapped it:

Tim, ChrisL has a lot of experience with lapping barber hones. He once said,

"Most barber hones can be lapped but if the lapping stops on a coarse grit stone, the original surface is altered and degraded. Reconditioning to me means lapping and bringing the surface through time consuming additional lapping stages on finer and finer grits until the surface is smooooooooooth and reflects light."

He will probably be along and detail what he would do to bring it back to a more original surface or you can shoot him a PM and see what his procedure is.

try lather and let it dry

I lapped and sold a couple dozen hones recently and was always ****ed because anything with the swaty color turns tan when lapped

then I fond out that lather will bring that waxy red look back

good luck (thank me after it works)

Thanks for digging that up, Jimmy. I still agree with what I wrote. The first thing I see with your "after" pic is that you still have some noticeable scratch marks. I would take those out. If the 1200 grit DMT is the finest you have, I would take it further since it's going to be lapped "flat" by that point, going to finer grits shouldn't be nearly the work it must have been to remove 1/16" of the Swaty's surface (your arms must look like Popeye's now?).

How would you "take it higher"? Grab some wet/dry 2000 grit from an auto supply store and use some plate glass or a marble floor tile as a flat surface and work up some more slurry. Use your pencil grid to make sure the entire surface is 2k grit. If you REALLY want a smooth surface then you could take that further and get into the 3M lapping films which I've done, but then stiction rears its ugly head and can start to cause you to curse like a sailor. If you have a buffing machine and want to do all you can for that Swaty, you can take a new and uncontaminated non-compound loaded cotton buffing wheel and very very lightly work the surfaces of the Swaty on the plain cotton wheel. Don't use any compounds. You're basically wanting to lightly polish the hone's surface. That helps a bit but it's not dramatic since there's nothing on the wheel.

Since you've lapped it, your surface will never be an even burgundy chocolate brown any longer but will now always have some of the mottled look to it.

I hope that helps.

Thanks guys. Chris, you're right, there's still significant surface scratching from the lapping, so I'll keep at the polishing with higher grits. I have a DMT 1200 and a DMT 8000, that's the best I can do with DMTs above the coarse grits. I have this much sweat equity in a very cheap but very cool hone, so I'll finish the job.

GrateWhite, the lather is a great idea, I'll use that as a final finish. Maybe the reason why the old Swatys look so smooth and shiny is because off all the lather used on them over the years.

If I can bring it back to life, I'll post another pic.

Please don't use dmt 1200 or 8000 on swaty. You will regret. hope my response is in time. gl

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

Thanks guys. Chris, you're right, there's still significant surface scratching from the lapping, so I'll keep at the polishing with higher grits. I have a DMT 1200 and a DMT 8000, that's the best I can do with DMTs above the coarse grits. I have this much sweat equity in a very cheap but very cool hone, so I'll finish the job.

GrateWhite, the lather is a great idea, I'll use that as a final finish. Maybe the reason why the old Swatys look so smooth and shiny is because off all the lather used on them over the years.

If I can bring it back to life, I'll post another pic.

I had a Swaty that had a few deep chips in it which I lapped out. (A LOT of work, so I know what you went through). But since I couldn't lap it on anything finer than about 320 or so, it wasn't the nice smooth finish it once had on it. ChrisL was nice enough to lap and smooth it out and when I receieved it it had a beautifully smooth finish on it.

The point of my post is saying that if you have the tools, all it takes is some time and effort and you will have a very useful Swaty, gauranteed.

left over oil must be the decider in the color
much like oil changes wood completely

I have a 8 inch Swaty but was dying to lap it (because I KNEW it wasn't flat) but I didn't want to lose the color

not sure how I figured it out, maybe I touched one with wet hands, but the color changed

OMG that waxy red luster is a sexy color
here's to imagining if women came in that color

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

Please don't use dmt 1200 or 8000 on swaty. You will regret. hope my response is in time. gl

+1and it deserves an extra post

a Swaty may very well damage a DMT

use sandpaper !

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

Please don't use dmt 1200 or 8000 on swaty. You will regret. hope my response is in time. gl

Ah, that would explain the black "slurry" I was getting, and the lack of polishing on the Swaty. Nickel substrate coming off the finer-grit DMTs? Ouch.

Oh well, I got a good year's use out of the 8000, and the 1200 isn't expensive. Thanks for trying to warn me, anyway. Maybe I can still get some use out of them.

So, sandpaper it is!!! That Swaty will pay.