Thread: Ceramic hones ok?

When it comes to new ceramic hones I'm of the same mind as Utopian and Kaptain Zero. Many people have ruined otherwise perfectly good barber hones and other types of ceramics by trying to lap them like naturals or other synthetics. It's a bit of a gamble - if you cut away too much ceramic and don't knock the cutting material down level with the ceramic surface it will be too coarse. Burnish the hone and it won't cut as fast. Can it be done? Yes. Should it be? A tentative maybe. Very much depends on the circumstances. I would try it out first, then based on it's performance decide whether or not I was willing to risk lapping it.

On a conciliatory note...



The Spyderco hone DOES have two sides...

I had a spyderco set for ages. Actually it was one of my first quality hones. And I'll tell you. They work for straight razors.

The feedback is terrible and I never liked a straight honed on the spyderco progression. But when the uf is used as a finisher after a natural it's something completely different. Some of my very best edges were from a 1K-coticule-spyderco uf progression.

My own completely non scientific theory is that the spyderco uf refines the coticule edge without erasing the edge introduced by the it.

And I lapped mine. It was one of many experiment I did on it. Initially it made it smoother than the other side. But when the unlapped side became smoother with use the difference became so small that I stopped caring about with side I used.