Thread: Looking for a touch-up hone

I've read the wiki. I've searched the forums. I haven't been able to make any progress towards making a decision about what hone to get.

Purpose: touch up only
Options (I think): Barbers, Coticule, Nakayama

I want a good stone that will give me superlative results. I'll leave the bevel setting to the pros. I just want to touch up.

Why are Nakayamas worth the $$$?
Why are Barbers hones so cheap?
Why do the honemeisters not use Barbers stones?

Please help.

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.

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.

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.

I respectfully, but almost completely, disagree with everything you wrote. First, do you have ANY experience with barber hones? "First and foremost," I don't know of any online vendor of a barber hone. There might be some, but if they don't provide a grit rating, there's a valid reason for that and I'll get to it later. I don't know of any modern day barber hone being made. Swaty made over 5 million barber hones and there were probably many times that of Swaty clones made. So many were made because they worked, and worked well, for over a hundred years. No, most people don't know the grit of their barber hones. Anyone who knows anything about barber hones knows that grit size of a barber hone is irrelevant. That in no way means that barber hones don't work. Yes, some few barber hones don't work well, but I wouldn't exactly call their acquisition a "hit or miss tactic." If you buy a barber hone and you don't like it, you're out maybe 20 bucks. Odds are good that the next barber hone will work well and for $40 you've got the only hone you will ever need and you can put the first one up on ebay and probably recoup most of what you paid for it.

By the way, about your "Chinese 12k" that you bought, you don't know the grit rating on that either. I guarantee that it's not 12k. It's a misnomer to identify a natural stone as having a particular grit. Also, no properly honed razor should need a touch up after only a week.

Finally, personally, I DO advise the use of barber hones. I'm fully aware that some people don't like them but if you start with a properly honed razor, you can maintain that razor for many years with nothing but that $20 barber hone. If you plan on honing many razors, then no, a barber hone is not practical, but if you intend to just maintain a few of your own razors, there is no need to invest a lot of money in hones when that single barber hone can provide you with a perfectly serviceable set of razors for the rest of your and your son's and your grandson's lives.

For anyone who is interested in a barber hone, there are some of us in this forum who can advise you on any particular barber hone you find for sale in the classifieds or on ebay. Help is available if you want it.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Also, no properly honed razor should need a touch up after only a week.

Brilliant post otherwise, but I am not entirely certain I subscribe to the above statement. My full hollows certainly do after 5-7 shaves.

Since there are so many other people defending barber hone usage I'll address the third question as to why honemeisters don't use them. They don't use them because they are most often not doing a simple touch up and they have complete honing systems to take a razor to a level beyond where most barber hones can go.

When I am doing a full re-sharpening on any of my razors it doesn't see the barbers hone either but for quick re-freshes and even for a final finish right at the sink I use my swaty. It is only one of three barbers hones I have used with success the second doesn't put as fine a finish on a razor, I would call it a coarse barbers hone, I don't use it often because it is much slower than my waterstone at doing the same job. The Swaty sees use over my third barbers hone which is a lithide hone, I like the swaty because it is larger and faster at its job, but either works equally well at providing a comfotable edge.

So...barber's hone is still in the running. But I am afraid of the potential risk of a barber's hone damaging the edge and unlike Undream et al. I won't know (no experience). As such, the cost would be $20 for the (bad) barber hone + shipping razor out for honing + honing service itself + return shipping + cost of another barber's hone, possibly to repeat again. By the time I'm on my second hone, I'll have paid half of what a JP natural would cost...what's the proper analysis here?

Is a japanese natural stone overkill for a casual honing job?