Thread: Barber Hones

I own two barber hones that work well for me. One is a two sided Keen Kutter, One is a two line Swatty. My question is do these stones ever need to be lapped? If so what grit to use? I know that you use an abrasive to clean them, But is that all you need? Thanks in advance for the info.
Phil

As long as you do x patterns, the hones should wear evenly and you won't need to lap them. If they become cupped though, you should flatten them out by lapping. I've yet to get my hands on a Swaty, but I had to lap my Aloxite hone to get rid of pock marks that developed (I didn't want them to chip my razor's edge) and that was a huge hassle. I mean, several hours of scrubbing with a green and gray scotch brite pad since all the grit on sandpaper I used came off almost immediately. Is your Swaty brown or gray? If it's brown, chances are pretty good that it's made from Aluminum Oxide. If gray, it could be silicon carbide, also known as carborundum.
You say your Keen Kutter hone is a combination hone. Does it have a natural stone on one side and a water hone on the other side? If that's the case, the water hone could be lapped pretty easily with 2000+ grit sandpaper, and the natural stone could be lapped with a lower grit paper and then worked up from there to the desired level of smoothness.

Also, using a pumice stone, or Goop/GoJo/Fast Orange to clean the hone's cutting surface is a good idea. The pumice will abrade the hone and expose new cutting grit. This maintains the hones' cutting abilities and prevents them from getting really clogged.

Sorry, I guess this is a long way to answer, but the best way to see if they need to be lapped is to see if there's any cupping in the hones at all. You can do this with a metal ruler, or even a taut string, and hold the hone and ruler up to the light. If you see light peering through the bottom of the ruler anywhere, chances are you should try to get the cutting surface level. Hope this helps.

Thanks, The swaty is brown, so I think you may be correct on that stone, The keen kutter is a water type stone on both sides. According to info that came with it, and verified by Lynn, you can evan use soap lather on it. They Keen Kutter is a dark green on one side and a light green on the other, I tried the ruler, and they are level, but I think I'll use that pumace stone on them. They both are not cutting to fast.

Barber hones are slow, no doubt about it. They're not much good for getting a dull razor sharp, but they'll do a good job of keeping one sharp. If you're in doubt about the trueness of the hone, mark the surfaces with a pencil and go ahead and lap them. If they're already true the pencil marks will come off within a figure 8 or two and you won't have removed much material at all from the hone.

OK But what should I use to lap them?

You probably don't need to lap them, but you can lap them against each other or 1000 grit wet/dry paper just fine, if you so desire. They are not soft waterstones.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.
Phil