Thread: Did I Ruin This Barber Hone?

Originally Posted by LawsonStone

I love barber hones and have a stack of them.

The hone was pretty badly "dished" on the label side, so I decided to lap the stone. I got it nice and flat, to be sure, but…well…the nice shiney polished surface of the stone now is gone and I have a rather more rough feeling surface.

Have I ruined that side of the hone? It seems that shiney finish is part of the barber-hone's magic, but I could be wrong.

If I sand it with higher grit sand papers, can I restore the surface (if that's needed)?

You probably can restore it by using progressively finer grits. You can also try lightly rubbing it against another barber hone under running water, but watch the resulting slurry to get a sense of which one is being lapped. Because some are much softer than others, this will affect which pairing will work.

(and I still owe you a PM!)