Thread: Defective hone?

Well, I bought a two sided "Winner" hone the other day for honing my straight. Razor came in first so I honed with my present stuff. Took a great edge, passed the HHT and gave me a "BFS" shave. Didn't pull, either.

...Then the "real" hone came in. I lapped it, and noticed it had quite a few specks in the surface, almost like concrete, and was dull white/grey. I had seen a picture of one before, and it was a very even smooth texture, and bright white fine side. I tried it out. Very poor edge, dull, scratched. It was much worse than my soft Arkansas, and took a while to get my edge back again. (I do use the Ark. in a way that allows for a better edge than most will get, but the edge as sharpened in the normal way was still much better.)

So, did I get a dud? Are some stones like this?

Thanks,
Chaz

Do you have pictures and what is the name of the hone?

The name of the hone is "WINNER HONE", and it is a double sided hone. I tried lapping it some more on 2000 grit sandpaper, and the edge it produced did improve. So the specks on the surface are indeed harder-than-steel inclusions. So with more work on the sandpaper, I may be able to get it to make a good shaving edge. Odd thing is it seems the hone is fine grit other than the specks.

Has anyone else experienced this on other hones before?

And here are the pictures, the inclusions are the little black dots. Several large ones can be seen in the picture, and there are many more smaller ones that can't be seen.

-Chaz

I just lapped it a bit with a medium India stone and tried it. Turns out I just started with a sharp knife. It dulled it, and although stropping did help, it was still a poor edge.

-Chaz

The Winner Hone is an excellent hone and can create great edges. I'm concerned that you might have trashed the surface when you lapped it. Now that you have lapped it, all you can do is to try to lap it with progressively more fine sandpaper in an attempt to try to restore the surface.

I don't think it is appropriate for you to try to sell this hone in this section of the forum.

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

Utopian,

That's what I had seen, the Winner's that people here had posted pictures of all looked uniform and they said the edges produced were good. Mine did come to me like this, with the odd surface and undefined fine/coarse layers. I thought it was just dirty and lapping would fix it, but so far it hasn't. I have seen other hones on eBay that looked like this, so don't know what the deal is with it. I did try it before lapping and it gave a poor edge. It is definitely not the lapping, as the inclusions are part of the hone itself.

I was just joking...I don't believe anyone really wants this one! I thought the part about it being a "God-forsaken greasy rock" kind of hinted to that. Anyway, hope I didn't offend anyone, I went back and deleted it.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

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

I only lapped this one because of the inclusions, I thought they may have just been on the surface, and I could lap them away.

-Chaz

I can't recall who it was but a member in the past who was knowledgeable on barber hones said that some of them break down with age. Dry out, crack .... what have you. Other than seeing the name mentioned I'm not familiar with the Winner from hands on experience. Tough luck. Hope it comes around with more lapping.

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. After the hone was made, it would have been lapped at the factory and perhaps another treatment was done to provide a proper glazed surface. I would suspect the lapping done prior to your purchase of the hone might have trashed that glazed surface except for one thing. That is, I had a trashed Winner Hone and I had to lap it and it came out fine.

Maybe you just got a dud, but you might still be able to rescue it with further lapping.

Sorry I missed that you weren't serious about selling it. I'm probably taking things more literally due to lack of sleep the last two nights. Chicago O'Hare and I just don't get along very well.