Touch Up Hones

I am in a similar boat to a gentleman who posted not too long ago. Although i currently only own one razor. I am also not interested in collecting or restoring, i just enjoy using the straight. I wish to touch up my razor when necessary with a few strokes on a hone. Ive been looking into a few options such as a barber hone (kinda leery of that as i do not want to get burned on ebay with a piece of crap) or a Naniwa 10k stone from SRD.

a few questions. Would i have to lapp (flatten?) a barber hone like i would the naniwa? also how often should stones be lapped? or flattened (im not sure thats the right term)

A barber hone would only need to be lapped once, and then it should be good for a lifetime. Lapped and flattened can be used interchangably - they really mean the same thing.

what is a good brand of barber hone to get? where can i find them? i searched 'barber hone' on ebay and got like nothing.

Check out the "barber hone characteristics" thread in the Hones section. There are loads of good ones - too many to name.

+1 on dylans advice. If you're searching on eBay, try looking for "razor hone" and "razor stone", that usually turns up a fair few results.

When buying, just make sure there are no obvious chips or scrapes on the stone, or that it hasnt got any staining which might indicate its been used with oil at some point.

Also check out Glen's (gssixgun) store Gem Star Customs, as he sells barber hones there.

Good luck and keep us posted.