Thread: Swaty Sides and Grit Differences

Sounds great! I look forward to the results.

Christopher

Originally Posted by gssixgun

How to say this the right way

Please always keep in the back of your mind that although we often read old "Manuals" and "Literature" and refer to them as almost a shaving gospel...
These should also be preferenced with IMHO just as we do now when we write our opinions on here..

These Books and Pamphlets were the Forums of yesteryear, not saying they are right or wrong, but they are after all one man's opinion...
Agreed, agreed! What we have found is that sometimes a different texture on the surface of a hone will result in a different edge( Spyderco, Arkansas black& translucent etc where there is no distinction between the abrasive and the binder) but for another hone it will make no difference, (waterstones, barber hones and other hones with separate abrasives & binders)

I have also read that the "Fine" front sides of Barber's Hones were often "Buffed" to a slicker surface then the back side at the factory, I however don't know if that is true or not...
In the case of the American Hone Company some hones were either buffed or rubbed with the hone mixture or oiled.

This does not mean that a lapped barber hone will cut the same after it has been lapped. What happens is that the arasive grains get "dulled" ( rounded over) from use and swarf builds up. By lapping the swarf is removed and the edges on the abrasive grains are now sharp again and not dulled, i.e. the hone is "refreshed".
The result is that the hone cuts faster and a bit more coarse, but not much and it settles down rapidly.

Ok CJ, here is what I have found.

I got my Swaty 2 days ago. It was pretty rough as I said, but in my excitement, I neglected to take any before pics, so I won't go into a bunch of after pics. Ok, hell with it, I'll go take some pics right now.........

It was rough, as I said, and had plenty of tiny edge chips, a kinda bad one on the corner, and a few stains to make it interesting. Most of the corners were already chipped, so I just removed them.

I had to thoroughly lap both sides as neither was anywhere near to flat. You can see in the pics the color difference between the name indentation and the rest of the stone. I removed all of the old surface, leaving a new, clean and extremely smooth surface on both sides. It's a downright beauty now.

Ok, so, taking it to my PHIG (this is the highest grit stone I have ATM) I rubbed out every scratch or sign of the DMT 325. I must have lapped it on that stone for an hour for it to make any difference overall to the finish. I was hardly getting any swarf off either, but I kept at it.... It now has a finish greatly smoothed by the PHIG on that side. The other side I left freshly lapped by the DMT.

I have around 10 unfinished razors waiting to be restored and honed, so I had no shortage of volunteers to test each of the sides in progression.

I started with an old Blue Steel Solingen that was really really dull. I wanted to see what kind of edge might be brought up on the rough side. Dismal failure as it remained quite dull. So, changing tactics, I decided to take on of my old shavers (my Salamandar) that has a good bevel but just needs some help in bringing the blade back to the comfort level I expect.

I ran the Salamandar ONLY over the unmarked side of the hone (the slick side) a total of 5 laps and tested. 5 more and tested. It was improving with every pass. I stopped after the second pass because I could see that the slick side was going to make it better and eventually I would be happy. I wanted to see if it improved or degraded or what on the 'rougher' side, the 'face' I'll call it.

I ran it 5 times over the face and tested. Already it had made a larger difference than the 'slick' side had in 2 5 lap passes. I finished it on the slick side by running it 5 more laps and tested again. I can put this one away now, it is once again highly polished and felt not the least bit harsh, with no drag or pull. This is with 3 days of beard growth too I might mention. Not an easy job!!! I did no stropping during this experiment.

So, fundamentally, I think all I have proven is what we all suspected anyway. Rough up the surface (or the oposite, buff up a surface) and it will perform differently. The 'rough' side seemed to remove more material than the 'slick' side by a good measure, like 3 to 1 kind of thing.

I repeated the experiment with a marginal Robeson's Best I have been waiting to touch up, and bingo!!!! 1 pass on the rough, 1 pass on the slick and she is ready to go back into rotation.

I was really kind of surprised at the quality of the swaty tho... I wasn't expecting anything special, but I think I'll keep this one. It took a crap ton of work to get it ready for use, but now that it is, I'm not gonna sell this one. She belongs right next to my Aloxite (which cuts like no other hone I have, it must be @6k grit).

I'm really enjoying trying all the different types of barber hones. Like all things I do, I cannot have just 1, I have to have 8, 9 or 10+ of everything so I can make a good choice of which one I want to keep for life.

I hated to give up my frictionite #00, but really, it wasn't much better than this swaty that has now had a lot of love. Several other hones managed just as good an edge also, so I would rather have a 20$ hone and not worry if it chips, than I would a 200$ Frictionite (I got 175 for mine) and freak out if anything happened.

There's my report!!! I hope someone benefits from it. If anyone wants me to repeat this experiment, say with a different hone type (material that is) I would be most happy too.

I have a perfection hone that must be from 10-12k, my aloxite (@6k I would say), this swaty (10+ I would say) a un-named synthetic hone that must be @1k (I'm not kidding either, it must have started life as a pocket knife hone, but now serves as my 'this razor sucks' hone cuz I believe I could put a bevel on a razor with this one) an Anchor brand (8-10k) and I have a couple more coming in first of next week. All that I listed have been lapped, and all edges given a chamfer and chips repaired and/or removed. I particularly enjoy rounding corners for a more 'cared for' look than just points. I also make it a point to remove the top layer of 'crap' that age leaves on these old babies. Edges, ends, both sides, I like it when no trace of the years remains.

I may have gone a little overboard, but that's just how I roll, LOL!!! JK...

I digress, hope this was helpful!!

Happy shaving!

Mike

















p.s. Any discoloration in the pics are finger marks, this baby sucks the moisture right out of your skin. NO kidding either. Anyplace you hold, will pull the oil and moisture right out of your fingers, as evidenced by the dark edges...

Thanx for the experiment and the results. I'll give it a try myself soon! =)

Christopher

I've restored a few Swaty's in my day. If you finish it off on wet sandpaper, It'll come out looking new, I went from 400 -1000 grit. The thing is dark brown again, looks new, works great....Here's a couple pics