Lithide Hone

[spanyard]

Hi there, I picked up one of Tilly's Lithide Hones. Does anyone out there know the best way to lap it first before using. I have tried everything from diamond plates to silicon carbide on the Shapton plate to wet and dry all sorts or grits on glass to no avail. No matter what the surface always looks different colors and it seems allfully rough. I was my thought that it was supposed to be a fine finishing hone. I would think that the surface would come up smoother. Kind of worried about trying it on a razor. Should I use it wet, dry, with lather or what. Is it supposed to be in the 8K to 10K range? Any help would be appreciated. It seems rougher than the GEM and CUSHION STROP hones I got from her as well.

[FiReSTaRT]

It is possible that it feels rough but is actually a fine cutter. I can't say for sure because I've had some bad experiences with it, so it's collecting dust on my shelf. For fine finishing I use a bench hone/strop (Tony Miller sells them at www.thewellshavedgentleman.com), pasted with 0.5 micron chromium oxide powder mixed in with strop dressing.

[AFDavis11]

Maybe its been picking up grit as you've been going? I lap all my barber hones against each other . . . teaches them who's in charge. Try lapping it a lot on your least favorite remaining barber hone.

[jnich67]

I lapped mine on a granite tile with 800 or 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper (the 3M kind in the yellow jacket). The color changed a little, but its still smooth. I follow up with a rub-down under running water with a scotch brite pad to remove any particles.

Jordan

[idaho mike]

I did the same as Jordan. Just a splash of water and rubbed it in an figure 8 pattern. I like to use water because it helps to keep the paper from clogging, eliminates any dust and give you some tactile feedback.

The surface of my hone was really smooth when I got it and it looked fairly flat, but I lapped it just to make sure. I lapped a small amount, checked for high spots, and continued until I had a consistent color.

Was your hone smoother when you got it? My guess is you either have some grit stuck in it or you've roughed it up with your efforts. Try cleaning it with a scotch brite pad and lapping with wet/dry sandpaper.

[gratewhitehuntr]

I've had a sililar problem with my "lithide" hone, also from tilly.
I actually went to the great length of using a piece of oak to lap it because I thought it was getting grit stuck in it from other hones.

After 11 hours (thats right) of lapping it was still rough. Closer inspection with a loop revealed little gold colored inclusions.

I do however have a few "practice" razors, so I tried one on it and the inclusions seemed to come loose.

It still works as a finish hone for me