Thread: Looking for a touch-up hone

Originally Posted by GUESSKOENIG

From my own experience and research, having very recently purchased and used my own set of hones, there are a couple of reasons older members do not advise barber hones. First and foremost, it is quite difficult to establish what kind of stone you are actually getting from most online vendors. Most of them don't know what kind of grit rating the stone is, or even what company makes them - simply tagging the item barber hone. Thus, you're basically spending money with hit or miss tactics that you get a stone that is suitable for use with your razor at all. I was personally looking into barber hones, but after the idea got slammed by a few people I went with more trusted options.

I'm sure there are some other members that can give you some more advice, but I would stay away from barber hones. I'm planning to touch up my own razor on my chinese 12k after about a week to see how it does. If you currently own a set of hones, using your highest grit rating or a comparable stone (you'll have to check with other members on that) might be the way to go for touch ups. You might also go the route of a treated strop, although I have personally never done so.

So barber's is out.
I do not wish to go the treated strop route.
I do not have a set of hones myself.

I'm leaning towards nakayama, but have a feeling that would be overkill.

Huh? I know several "older members" (Nun2Sharp, Lynn Abrams...ahem...) who sometimes use and recommend barber's hones. They're cheap, and if you get a known one like a Swaty they're pretty reliable. As long as you make sure you see pictures and it's not falling apart, it should do you well. And of course, you can always get direct advice by posting a pic of the hone you're considering.

They're cheap (sometimes) because they are common as dirt, and the market is pretty limited to, well, us. Check the classifieds, and you'll probably see at least one a week come up.

Seeing as how a Nakayama is an entire order of magnitude more expensive than a barber hone, you might want to think about it. I mean, if you've got the scratch there's no reason NOT to go for it, but it's not necessary.

If your only requirement is that the hone be high enough grit to touch up, you've got tons of options--Coticule, 12K naniwa, 16K-30K Shapton, Chinese Waterhone, barberhone, etc. etc. If there are other factors that weight in, like size, cost, aesthetic, natural or synthetic, and so on, then you have something to narrow down your options.

A BIG +1 on Jim's comments about barber hones.

The reason they are cheap is because they are so useful, that when straight shaving was the only way, practically everybody had one, so there are millions of them floating around out there.

I have a relatively full set of shapton glass hones, including the 16k, and I have chosen to keep my barber hone because they are so ideally suited to touch-ups.

5 laps on a barber hone will refresh an edge. I just pull it out of the bathroom cupboard, slap some lather on it from my brush, make 5 passes, a few laps on the strop, and it's right back to shaving.

Originally Posted by JimR

...and if you get a known one like a Swaty they're pretty reliable...

Also, (if it wasn't already crystal clear that most of us are in favor of barber hones) I would add one small thing to what JimR said here. While he is ABSOLUTELY correct, almost any vintage razor hone will do the job extremely well.

I have a 2-sided "Amaloid" razor hone* that I briefly considered selling after I got my shaptons, but it's just too handy to get rid of.

These things were sold under dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands of brand names, and the vast majority of them are GREAT.


The only ones you really need to stay away from AFAIK, are some of the new products that are sold as barber hones, but are in fact pieces of petrified dog turd, like the Zeepk brand razor hone, or the chunks of rock glued to a stick.


*I said "razor hone" because that's what almost all of them were sold as, and if you go looking for them on ebay you have to search for razor hone instead of barber hone, or you won't find many. After all, these were not specialty items for barbers, but every day household items.