Thread: Why can't I find a brand new barber hone?

You have been given some very good advice here. The only thing I can add at this point is that the main advantage of a barber hone is the size which makes it very convenient and the ease of use, use it dry, with water, or lather.
With any hone the one thing you want to avoid is where the sides are "high" ( center is dished). That is about the only time lapping would be required for a barber hone. It can be kept clean with rubbing stones, nylon scrub pads, brush etc.

Just my $.02,

thanks to everyone here for the advice, very helpful for someone like me who is new to straight razoring shaving and maintenance.

i ended up getting a swaty off ebay in really nice condition, 22 bucks. Seems to have a flat surface, so i cleaned it up with a nylon brush and i tried it out on my razor and got a nice shave after.

Thanks again for the help, im sure ill need some more in the future.

One way you can tell if the stone is flat when lapping is that it will have a good suction for lack of a better word and stick to your hone. However, you still may have small areas that aren't perfectly flat. I trick I learned is to take a pencil and draw some zig zag lines that are closely spaced all across the surface of the hone. Then lap it a bit and check to see if all the pencil marks are removed. If not, your stones not perfectly flat, keep lapping until they are gone. I use a DMT diamond stone to lap with BTW. Hope this helps.

To the OP, I have a fully lapped barbers hone-vintage of course- if you'd like it, pm me and we can discuss options. I already have a few finishing stones and to be honest cannot even use those correctly. Anyways the offer is on the table......if you decide to go that route, but like Neil and a few others said there are finishing stones, such as the naniwa super stone 12k, which I have that are cheap and even more reliable!

Originally Posted by anthogia

To the OP, I have a fully lapped barbers hone-vintage of course- if you'd like it, pm me and we can discuss options. I already have a few finishing stones and to be honest cannot even use those correctly. Anyways the offer is on the table......if you decide to go that route, but like Neil and a few others said there are finishing stones, such as the naniwa super stone 12k, which I have that are cheap and even more reliable!

Ok I didn't realize this post was a year old! I feel like a DB! Lol!

Nonetheless your heart was in the right place ,offering a free barber hone to a fellow member.