Thread: Carborundum No. 119

I think you may need to do some reading in the beginner's section of the Wiki.

You should start with a properly honed shave ready razor. You strop before every shave. When you feel that the razor is diminishing in its performance, you hone on the barber hone doing only 4-6 laps, then you strop and shave. The hone is only for occasional touch ups to maintain the edge in a sharp condition. The stropping is done daily to re-align the extremely thin edge.

Ok thanks, and I have tried to read some ofthe for beginners links but they wouldn't open correctly so I couldnt. I'm sure 99.9% of that was operator error though

Is there a list of Carborundum hone and what the corresponding numbers mean/are useful for?

I've compiled such a list--but more keep turning up! At some point I'll make a Carbo thread and show them all. If you have a question about a particular one, just ask.

I have a carb 101A, it looks to be the same grit on both sides. Is there anyway to be sure?

Originally Posted by Sreid87

I have a carb 101A, it looks to be the same grit on both sides. Is there anyway to be sure?

I think you asked that in another thread and I forgot to answer it. The 101A is the same grit on each side. I've played with enough Carborundum hones to know for sure.

Yes I did ask, but thanks for the quick answer. Aslo would you happen to know what the grit would be, I have looked and might have missed it but I haven't found a definitive answer.

That's because there is no definitive answer.
Some barber hone grits were sieved, and therefore could be rated by a grit size, but that size doesn't matter.
Some barber hone grits were rated by their "flour" rate. That is, the raw grit was immersed into solution and 1F was what came out in an hour, 2F came out in two hours, etc. The more fine the grit, the longer it remained in suspension.
Now, neither of these ratings are terribly informative because it doesn't tell the whole story. The binder and the density of the grit also impacted the effectiveness of the hone. Barber hones, like natural hones (including the Chinese hone erroneously rated as 12k) do not have grit ratings because those ratings are meaningless.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I've compiled such a list--but more keep turning up! At some point I'll make a Carbo thread and show them all. If you have a question about a particular one, just ask.

well the one I have is either a 119 or 118 its hard to tell, did 10 X strokes on blade that was broke in half to see what does and it seems to cut fast

The 118S is 4"x2"x3/4" and is porous unlike a many of the Carborundum razor hones. For that reason, this hone works better with lather rather than water because the water will just keep right on sucking the water into it. It is made of silicon carbide, laps quicky, is fairly soft, and cuts quickly. In general, you'll only need about 5 strokes or less for touch ups.

Please let me know the dimensions of your hone.