Thread: Traveling with hone

A $15 Chinese barbers hone has been working perfectly fine for me and my razors. But I'm to understand not everyone has good luck with them (lots of debate on whether they are good or not, I can only speak for my own good experience).

If you decide to lap a barbers hone, I suggest doing it a little bit differently than a normal stone. First let me say that barbers hones are ceramic and very hard. Because of this, I would avoid using a diamond lapping plate (such as a DMT) and instead use wet-dry sandpaper. If you are dead-set on using a DMT or the like make sure to rinse the slurry off very frequently to reduce wear. For the wet-dry method start with a low grit and progress to as high a grit as you can get your hands on. Since BH's are such fine grit stones a high grit paper is needed to remove any scratches.

That all being said, if you end up using a barber's hone you might not even have to do anything to it. They do not HAVE to be lapped to work the way they should. You're not setting the bevel, but refining and smoothing out the very edge. Obviously if the thing is dished and warped either lap it or find a different one. Truth be told it would be easier to find a different one.

Originally Posted by RVShave

As I understand, if I only want to refresh a shave ready razor, I only need a finishing stone. Still haven't found out how often this could be, but the question is can a finisher such the Naniwa 12k be packed safe for traveling as we're fulltime RVers. We move about every few months.

Thanks
Greg

Simply wrap some bubble wrap around it & put it in a cigar box or Tupperware.

I want to point out that I have used my barbers hone a lot since I got it in February and haven't lapped it once.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Simply wrap some bubble wrap around it & put it in a cigar box or Tupperware.

What he said is a stone,not a pce of waterford crystal.

3 micron and 1 micron lapping film. It doesn't take up space. All you need is a piece of granite tile cut into 3x9. You can touch up razors about 30 times for a 3x 9 inch piece. And you never have to lap it, its always flat.