I have a couple problems with my hones and am in need of some advice.
First one is, I bought a barber hone(velvet edge) off of ebay and it looks like the previous owner used oil. It is my understanding that barber hones can be used with oil, water or lather so its not a huge problem. It is just that I was hoping to use the water or lather options. Is there any way to remove the oil other than lapping for half a day(or more)? I dont really want end up with a 1/4 inch tall hone either.
The other problem is the one that worries me the most. I also bought a Jnat off ebay, about a day before I found out about Old School and 330mate and all the others that would of been a far better place to buy a stone from. It is a pretty green color maybe a little greenish blue but it has a different vein of something(black w/ brownish borders) running about 3/4 of the way down the face. When I first used the Jnat I got all tingly cause it was cutting good and was leaving a mirror finish but then I noticed my bevels were looking funny, the toe end was falling behind the heel end. I took the razor back to the 4k/8k norton to straighten it back up, and tried again but same thing happened. Since the toe was starting on the other side of the vein I am thinking that maybe the material in the vein is harder than the stone and not letting the toe end start to cut(holding it up a bit) until it crosses over. The stone was sloping away from the vein a little, I thought it was just that the previous owner using it to sharpen tools or knives or something, now i'm not so sure. Today I decided to do the unthinkable(sorry OS) and I lapped it, it started just with one of the edges so I could use the side but quickly turned to the face. I figure to hell with the stamps, I wouldn't feel right re-selling it anyway if there is a problem with it, and if not i'll be keeping it anyway since i've got to start catching jimmyhad some how. I did take some pictures though before I erased the stamps. I was wondering if it would be possible to take a small round carbide bit on a dremel and just keep the vein lower than the surface, since it runs perpendicular with the honing motion?
On the other hand it just may be my honing stroke that is causing the problems I am blaming on the vein although I just dont understand how I can create a decent edge on the 4/8k nortons and then mess it up on the Jnat. I am not planning on doing anything to the stone till further down the road, after I get a little more experience under my belt, but I am starting to look for options. Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.