Thread: The Swaty vs all other hones

The difference is in the amount of grit and the speed of cutting...

To compare, a B-hone, you have to understand that they cut fast, really 5 or so laps, and your done, and keep in mind this is a 4-5 inch hone..

I like to compare the Naniwa line sometimes when explaining it,,, Take a Naniwa 1k Super Stone and compare it to a Naniwa Chosera 1k, both are 1k but the Chosera has much more grit, so it cuts faster, but not deeper.. Barber's hones work much the same way, they cut fast but leave a smooth comfortable edge, so they are not cutting deep...
But yes any polishing stone will do the same, but I would stay a bit lower in grit myself, and honestly once you do that you are opening the dreaded HAD door becaue a Norton 4/8 or Naniwa SS 3/8 are probably the most versitile hones out there...

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Mjhammer: What about the Swaty? I don't think there's a difference between the 2 and 3 line, but just in case, I'm talking about a 2 line.

Many apologies if this is a thread hijack.

Hi Joe!! I have 4 swaty's now, one is a 3 line. Each is extremely hard, but not as hard as say my Robeson Sure-edge. That stone was a mother to lap. The swaty's are all hard and extremely smooth, and honestly do an excellent job of polishing, as good as it gets IMO. How the surface has been finished on the swaty also impacts how fast it cuts, again IMO. I finish the front on a lower grit polish than the back, which I polish either on a real high grit paper or another hone to make the surface even smoother to polish even better. il.e. I polish the front to 600 and the rear to 1k.

I believe the Swaty's are excellent polishing stones, and can take a lot more laps than other hones before wiring the edge. It works even better than my PHIG for finishing, or can be used after the PHIG to complete the polish.

Now again, I have several dual grit barber hones, such as the Duro, the AHC Winner and an amazing Tonsorial Gem that serve both purposes and will restore and edge and polish it rather nicely. The high grit side of the Winner is at least 8k, where the others are (IMO) lower grit.

I digress and have forgotten what it is my point was... OH well.. OH ya, the swaty's. Listen out of my 4 swaty's not a one of them is identical to it's brother. Some are darker and harder, others are lighter and not so hard. Either way, I guess it is up to whatever your Swaty is really like.

Enough from me, I'm just rambling now.. Off to work I go!!!

Mike

Ahhhhhh

Just to make sure I was recollecting correctly I shaved with my Swaty only finished razor this morning, I keep one razor that I use the method that you are describing... I maintain it with just a Swaty hone and only strop on Linen and Leather after, basically a traditional setup..

Results are just as I expect every time for the last 3 years a smooth close shave

Over the years, many "old timers" and older barbers have told me that most guys used their Swaty or Barber hones for refreshing their razors. When one got too dull for the Barber hone to work on it, they sent it out to either a Barber or local Sharpening Service for a full honing. This goes along with the discussion here. The advertisements I have seen, that came with the old Barber hones all said to use only 4-6 strokes for refreshing the razor. I still have around 40 Barber hones here and they do bring a razor back with a minimum amount of strokes. The only drawback for me is size, but for the number of strokes used, this is not much of a deterrent. I also like to use about 5 strokes on .5 diamond or chromium oxide after the barber hone and then on to the leather with pretty good results normally. Virtually no pressure on the stone is required when either refreshing with a Barber hone or when using it at the end of a honing regiment.

Another fun exercise that I have done is to do one stone honing after bevel setting with a 7x2 inch Swaty that I have and this has been producing consistently good results.

Have fun.

Is it a big deal to touch up an edge on a barber hone without tape when it was honed originally with tape?

Sorry for the hijack. Thought it might be relevant.

Originally Posted by medicevans

Is it a big deal to touch up an edge on a barber hone without tape when it was honed originally with tape?

Sorry for the hijack. Thought it might be relevant.

Not really, The tests I did on that exact subject were done quite a few years back, but here is what I found, all tests with tape were done with one layer of 3M 700



To even up a taped edge to a non-taped spine took me between 10-20 laps on a Norton 4k so you would need to start on a B-Hone at about 10 laps using a magic marker colored edge to see what it takes on there... Each hone of course will be different
People like to make tape out to be this huge change but honestly it just isn't, you are talking about micron measurements here...

Here is what I am using;


The Gatco is a knife sharpener hone at about 1.2k and the Bhone is a Boss. I recently picked up a swaty (3 line but not marked with the word 'three'). I have been purchasing old razors from antique stores, honing them then trying to shave. Been at this nearly one year now. I originally wanted to purchase the 'better' stones, but seem to be getting good shaves with what I have. I will admit that the first time I tried with only a barber hone it was a nightmare, but the reason I purchased so many razors and used the Bhone was to learn how to hone. It worked. The extra time caused me to really look, listen and feel as I honed.

The Swaty does seem to be much slicker than the boss and it 'sucks' the blade more. Don't know how else to describe that. There seem to be a suction effect on the swaty that is not there on the boss hone.

Sgt Scott

You sewed that pouch too, didn't you Sergeant? I should have gone that route. Perfect, simple, effective.

My minimalist setup is a 6/8, a strop, and a barber's hone.

In January I sent out my razor for sharpening at one of the online vendors, to establish a baseline, and since then I have been using the barber's hone every week or so to refresh the edge. I do 3-4 laps on the hone with lather, then 2 laps on the dry hone, and finally I give 2 laps in trailing edge position (like you do when stropping) on the hone. I find that it smoothes the edge a bit more.

Then I strop on canvas, leather, and shave. Life is good and sharp.

Originally Posted by Str8nSharp

I've been wondering what the razor manufacturers used to hone up their razors before they left the factory back in the day.

Don't kid yourself back in the 1800s they took the heaviest guy in the shop and put him on a foot pedal operated bench grinder and he was mad to begin with cause in effect they were calling him fat and thought he needed the pedaling exercise so he peddled like mad and as he put those razors to the stone the sparks flew like it was the 4th of July and he tested the edge by running it on his tongue until it was just right and then he stropped it on the horse next door who kept flicking his tail and he used that as the strop. Then he test shaved by using one of the goats they kept just for that purpose and....well you asked didn't you?