Thread: Defective hone?

Not a winning hone at all

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

I have never seen the need to lap a barbers hone.

Unless you buy one NOS most need lapping before you can use them for honing razors as they have suffered abuse by their previous owners. Just look at ebay listings: most have a scratched surface.

They are SOB to lap.

Hi,

+1 on JimmyHADs comments on some barber hones fairing badly with age.

I have a Royal Hone by US Abrasive Products Inc; this hone is now so soft, you can break bits of the edges with your fingernail !

A real shame as the hone was in almost perfect condition

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Could it be that the fine side is just not as fine as you're used to for a finisher, e.g. 8-10k? Although if it's coarser than that perhaps long ago someone put the wrong stone in the 'Winner' box, just like how an Escher ended up in a Carborundum box.

Imo if the hone cuts with a uniform enough scratch pattern it's not a dud, you'll just have to find the right place for it in your progression.

Utopian,

Interesting, I wonder if they did start just giving the hones a fine grit coating at some time. You say you had one that lapped out? Did it have the same weird inclusions?

-No worries, that would take it's toll on me, too.

SprooseMoose,

Yep, I call it the Loser Hone.

Jimmy,

Odd that they decompose over time. This is not that though, oddly enough it seems it was made this way, as the inclusions are a part of the hone but the rest seems fine.

That's a weird one Russ. Had to be a bad feeling taking it out of the box and finding that out!

Piet,

I have so far been bevel setting on a soft Arkansas and honing with Simichrome polish on paper and then going to plain newspaper, then a cotton belt, then a leather belt strop. It's sadly not a coarse stone, just a fine one with large chunks of something that make it cut like a razor hone and finish like a chunk of fill gravel (with a very non-uniform scratch pattern), not a good combination! (Especially since I have found a trick that lets me get a mirror polish edge with a soft Arkansas!) I am saving up for an eBay Coticule and I am about to get some green honing compound. You got lucky if you found an Escher in an old Carborundum box!

"...Hey! I got an Escher!...."
"...I got a rock..."

Thanks again everyone,
Chaz

(Yes I know that the Escher is a rock, but that Charlie Brown line was just too tempting. )

I just noticed that SprooseMoose's "avatar" is Charlie Brown! I didn't notice it before.

I only found the ebay auction of that Escher which was labeled as Carborundum, someone else here bought it.

Originally Posted by Piet

I only found the ebay auction of that Escher which was labeled as Carborundum, someone else here bought it.

Oh heck, are you sure someone on SRP bought it? Do you have any idea who it was?

Often ebay sellers will misrepresent a razor in another brand of razor box. I argue that a Timex in a Rolex box is NOT a Rolex. Oddly, in the case of that Escher in a Carborundum box, it was a case of a Rolex in a Timex box being claimed to be an extra rare and valuable Rolex by virtue of the box.
It isn't.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I have seen such inclusions in lapped barber hones before. Honestly, I cannot explain them as the abrasive grit and binding material should pretty much be homogenous throughout the hone.
...snip....

Most barber hones are fired ceramics and
differer from bricks by the care that the
mud has been classified. One of the tricks
used to make a dimensionally stable product
that does not crack or warp while drying
and firing is to mix ground previously fired or partly
fired product back into the mix. The grain size of
such grog does not mater as long as it is prepared
from equally fine material.

These would looks like what you are seeing.

What Is Grog - Definition of Grog in Pottery

Originally Posted by ChazH

Jimmy,

Odd that they decompose over time. This is not that though, oddly enough it seems it was made this way, as the inclusions are a part of the hone but the rest seems fine.

IIRC the Punjab razor hone had a leaflet recommending not to expose the hone to direct sunlight. Some hones are fired but for other hones some sort of synthetic glue is used. That glue will decompose over time.