Thread: Antique Find -- Carborundum

You did a nice job bringing up three significant points in you short post. Most likely others will chime in soon but here are my opinions.

1. No barber hone without significant chips should be lapped UNLESS you have both
a) experience using other barber hones
b) tested it to see how it hones in its unaltered state.

This was your grandfather's hone! Try it out in its current condition so you can get a feel for what your grandfather was using. Generally barber hones need a good cleaning more than they need lapping.

2. Others definitely disagree on this one but I don't think the DMT 325 should ever be used on a barber hone. DMT declares that only the DMT XX should be used for lapping hones but they have stated that the DMT325 can be used on waterstones-- which are much softer than your Aloxite. In my opinion using a DMT 325 on barber hones is a nice way to add diamonds to your kitchen drain.

3. There is a slight difference between a finishing hone and a maintenance hone. Your Naniwa is the former and your Aloxite is the latter. Finishing hones put on a fine polish on your edge and they barely cut steel. Barber hones cut faster but still manage to leave a decent edge on the blade. If you have a Naniwa 12k, then you should use that as a finisher. The Aloxite will not improve the edge off a properly honed blade finished on a 12k. The Aloxite as a maintenance hone is meant to be all you need to maintain a razor indefinitely but the edge it produces is not as good as that of the


Since you have both, I'd suggest you do what I have done for a long time. I have a set of razors that I keep in my locker at a gym. They have been maintained for something like 7 years now with nothing but a barber hone. They shave just fine, but they are not as smooth as what I use at home. If you have more than one razor, I'd suggest you try maintaining one of them with nothing but your Aloxite. This will give you a much better sense of how your grandfather maintained his razor. He didn't have diamond plates or synthetic hones from Japan and odds are he would have thought it ridiculous to have more than one hone or even more than one razor.

Since you have both the Aloxite and the Naniwa, now it's time to play with them and learn more about how they work. Have fun with that!