Thread: a couple of new stones

Originally Posted by Hirlau

I have lapped many barber hones & own more than my share. I have questions/concerns on refreshing/loading barber hones with a petroleum jelly. Unless it is an older Carborundum razor hone; I am concerned about the binder being effected & that the petroleum jelly would 'fill" the pores of the hone, taking away from it's cutting ability.
I can see a certain amount of tallow soap or fat being during the touch up, but not left on the hone afterwords.

Interesting,,, the effects of a petroleum product on a barber hone.
I will try to find something on this, maybe Martin has something in his file.

Modine has done a good deal of fairly rigorous testing and analysis of barber hones. He re-hydrates after lapping. I wish I could report that re-hydrating slowed down or moderated the cutting ability of barber hones but I have not found that to be the case. They are mostly still pretty aggressive with just a few strokes needed.

This comes down to which Barbers' Hones they are


Some BH's have instructions that say use with Oil, Water or Lather some say use Dry, some say use with Oil or Water...


Most have no instructions


Reading the label that Martin so nicely supplied for the Apart hone one can see that this hone is oil safe so the Vaseline trick should have NO ill effect, but I also would also NOT make a sweeping recommendation that using Vaseline on all Barber's Hones is a good idea.

Keep in mind that once you introduce Oil into the mix that it is very hard to remove it from the equation..

Originally Posted by gssixgun

This comes down to which Barbers' Hones they are


Some BH's have instructions that say use with Oil, Water or Lather some say use Dry, some say use with Oil or Water...


Most have no instructions


Reading the label that Martin so nicely supplied for the Apart hone one can see that this hone is oil safe so the Vaseline trick should have NO ill effect, but I also would also NOT make a sweeping recommendation that using Vaseline on all Barber's Hones is a good idea.

Keep in mind that once you introduce Oil into the mix that it is very hard to remove it from the equation..

Glen makes a good point about sweeping recommendations. I was cautious when I first tried this. I started with cheap expendable hones not a frictionite. Again I just have a small sample of around 30 hones to go by but that sample includes some that instruct to use dry i.e Pike Strop Hone (which also by the way says to hone and strop the razor every time it is used - so the instructions on the box are not the final authoritative word on how use the hone IMO). I have had uniformly excellent results. I will also note that I live in a high desert where moisture is just ripped out of everything and everybody. Here is a list of hones I have re-hydrated to good effect so far.

Apart
Barbers Pride
Binghams Best Brand
Blue Diamond
C-Mon – Combination Hone
Craftsman – Combination Hone (2)
Frictionite 00 (2)
Gem Cushioned Hone-Strop
John Primble (2)
Kanner
Karbolektrik
Keen Kutter Kombination
King Midas
Nox-All – Sears Roebuck and Company
Pike – Emerald
Pike Strop Hone
Quick & Easy SRD –
Shumate – Blue rounded corners
Shumate – Blue square corners
Shuredge
Steinmetz
Swaty – 2 line Austria
Swaty – 3 line Austria
Swaty – 3 line long
Union Cutlery Special Spike Hone
Winner – Combination Hone

Congratulations on the BBW and Apart Barber hone both are beauties, thank you for sharing. In regards to re-hydrating or re-conditioning the barber hones surface use caution as Glen recommended. You can always test a small patch area prior to dressing the entire hone with any substance.
Mike