Thread: Lather or water? Finer finish?

Know oil gives the finest finish. But have read some conflicting things. Seems to me from my little experience that lather gives finer finish than water. On coticule or slate. Am I wrong?

Lather would work like an oil. Many soaps and creams have glycerin or other types oils in it.

To muddy the waters a little further there is also honing solutions and glycerin products that will change the results too. Simply sticking with oil there are different finishes with different grades of oil too.

'IF' you want to have some fun and experiment, once you have finished your final perfect strokes on water, give a natural a spray of a window cleaner such as Windex and then have a few more laps.

I want to watch this one to see what comes up, I finish with honing oil and have been happy so no experimenting here.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

'IF' you want to have some fun and experiment, once you have finished your final perfect strokes on water, give a natural a spray of a window cleaner such as Windex and then have a few more laps.

I'm intrigued by this and will give it a try next time I refresh a razor. If you could elaborate on your results doing this I would like to hear how it's worked for you.

Thanks!

Marty E.

The only stone/hone I heard about and was told to use lather on is a Frank Swaty Barber's Hone and only lather from a soap with tallow.

Originally Posted by MyanmarShave

I'm intrigued by this and will give it a try next time I refresh a razor. If you could elaborate on your results doing this I would like to hear how it's worked for you.

Thanks!

Marty E.

Hey Marty,

Nothing 'Magic' here, a friend suggested using a honing oil when finishing up so I did and I liked the way the razor glided over the natural hone. Well I use Windex on my DMT 325 for a lube and I decided to give it a try.

I'll usually use a slurry on any of my finishing hones then go to clear water so when I went to experiment I did my usual routine and then gave the Zulu a couple of shots of the glass cleaner and did 10 as close to perfect X strokes as I could an I liked the feel of the steel on the hone and on the face.

I rarely use any kind of a pasted strop but I'm learning. So most of my edges come right off of a hone to an Illinois 827 linen, then SRD Cotton, then Illinois Russian leather, then to the leather of my choice/right now I'm using Roo, but I'll be going back to either SRD #1 leather or SRD English Bridle.

I would caution in that a friend has a fairly expensive natural stone or two and he wouldn't think of ever putting anything like Windex, dish soap, honing oil etc on his rocks.

Also don't try this on something like a Norton water stone or such. Hell when my son's girl friend got a few drops of cooking oil on my Norton 8k side she grabbed the dish soap and got the hot water running to get it off. Well the hone had micro bubbles for a long time but hey! I should have put the hones up but I hadn't so the blame lies with me.

OH, I think that I'll answer the question now instead of later: No I didn't notice a difference with the micro soap bubbles on the Norton.

Enjoy the Ride! It's a long strange trip, but well worth the journey!

Im happy with clean water, There are man ways to Rome.
So do what fit the best by your progress

I have tried oil, lather, dish soap, glycerin, and plain water. I haven't noticed a difference between them all except I like the feedback of oil, lather, glycerin, dish soap. Plain water works just as good in the end though. I think it depends on the stone and the hands honing too.