Thread: How Do I Use These Hones

Hi Everyone, I just pick up these hones at a flee market and was looking for some insight on their proper use. What type of hones are they? Do I use water, oil, dry? are they collecter pieces? I have norton waterstones up to 8k, can I use these in addition to my typical honing regiment? Any help would be much appreciated.

The brown King hone is a synthetic barber hone similar to a Swaty. It is used for maintaining an already sharp razor with just 4 to 6 strokes. It can also be used as a finisher after the 8k. It can be used wet or dry or with oil. I would not recommend oil. I would recommend that you use water with just a touch of soap or lather to break the surface tension of the water so that it remains uniformly distributed on the hone. (If you use water, it will bead up and get pushed off the hone.)

The other is a natural Arkansas stone. I've only tried a couple of them and I did not consider them to be as fine as an 8k Norton but I'll leave further comments about them for others.

+1

Arkansas stones are hit or miss, and even change with how they are lapped....
Some/few give an extremely smooth shaving edge but require a very steady hand...
I maintained 2 SR's for 20+ years on one, but used it every other week on both razors... I still have the stone, which was stupid expensive back in 1981, and I have one razor that I use on it just for comparison to all the other stones...

Originally Posted by Utopian

The brown King hone is a synthetic barber hone similar to a Swaty. It is used for maintaining an already sharp razor with just 4 to 6 strokes. It can also be used as a finisher after the 8k. It can be used wet or dry or with oil. I would not recommend oil. I would recommend that you use water with just a touch of soap or lather to break the surface tension of the water so that it remains uniformly distributed on the hone. (If you use water, it will bead up and get pushed off the hone.)

The other is a natural Arkansas stone. I've only tried a couple of them and I did not consider them to be as fine as an 8k Norton but I'll leave further comments about them for others.

Ron

Sorry King hone is a little different then swaty. i am sure you cannot see in the picture that is why you thought it is similar to swaty.
King stone is 2 sided(i have couple) and he can use courser side for sharpening and branded side for finishing the edge.
I would not recommend to use King as sharpening purposes if you are new to honing process.
Ron is correct about using Branded side (brown color) for touch up purposes.it is very fine and nice stone.
hope this helps.

Hi_Bud_Gl is of course correct about the King. I have one and knew it to be two-sided but only thought to answer in terms of its use relative to the OP's Nortons. Yes, for following after the Norton 8k, only the brown imprinted side should be used. The back side is more coarse and is used for sharpening but is redundant to your Nortons.

well that second stone is a translucent ark which is the finest ark you can buy its a finishing stone you'll have to use a light touch and round a 200 lap count for finishing make sure your bevel is set and very sharp that will speed the process up before you use the ark dont worry about lapping the ark its a very hard stone( but still check for flatness) you can use water or oil . oil would be best the stone is nonporous so it wont absorb water or oil

Originally Posted by eleblu05

well that second stone is a translucent ark[ansas]...

I have several of these, but didn't know what they were. Thanks!

On these threads, there are somewhat frequent references to the use of carbon and graphite in various forms. Ink in newspaper. Pencil lead on strops. Etc.

Interestingly, every translucent Arkansas hone I have has been obviously marked up with a lead pencil. It must have been common practice to coat the surfaces of these stones with graphite as abrasive.

Thank you everyone for your input. I am new to honing, I picked up set of 4 somewhat beat up SR's off ebay really cheap that I've been practicing on. I am improving but I have a long way to go. I'll try some of your suggestions. Thanks again!

Originally Posted by eleblu05

well that second stone is a translucent ark which is the finest ark you can buy its a finishing stone you'll have to use a light touch and round a 200 lap count for finishing make sure your bevel is set and very sharp that will speed the process up before you use the ark dont worry about lapping the ark its a very hard stone( but still check for flatness) you can use water or oil . oil would be best the stone is nonporous so it wont absorb water or oil

I didn't know it was nonporous, thanks.

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

I have several of these, but didn't know what they were. Thanks!

On these threads, there are somewhat frequent references to the use of carbon and graphite in various forms. Ink in newspaper. Pencil lead on strops. Etc.

Interestingly, every translucent Arkansas hone I have has been obviously marked up with a lead pencil. It must have been common practice to coat the surfaces of these stones with graphite as abrasive.

Graphite is not an abrasive.

Graphite pencils are a different game. The graphite is bound in a clay
then fired. Varying the graphite to clay ratio changes the hardness.

The quality of the fine clay and the universal demand for a smooth writing
almost guarantees an ultra fine result. As an amendment to hones and
strops I can see how pencil lead would work on two levels. The slickness
of the graphite can lubricate and the fired clay can act as a fine polish
abrasive and surface filler. It is worth a try...

On barber hones I have started using the last bit of a tube of white
toothpaste. Just a little bit. For me it minimizes glazing, promotes
polishing and it feels as if the fluoride reacts with the surface of old
barber hones tightening up the surface. The wetting agent also helps.

There are a lot of old time tricks like ash and charcoal from burned straw
to blackboard chalk to decanted slurry mud all of which result in
fine abrasives with different properties.