Thread: Barber Hones

I've played around with five different barber hones: two-line Swaty, Gem, Barber's Choice, lithide, and the strop-back hone from Tilly.

The lithide, Gem, and strop back were part of the set that Tilly sells. I haven't had any luck yet with the lithide, which is supposed to be a finishing hone. The surface feels really coarse, even after lapping, and it always seems to dull my edge.

The Gem is a medium hone, and the strop is a coarse one. They both work great for what they do. It would take a long time to sharpen an eBay special, even with the coarse--maybe a couple of hours. The Gem will take an edge to HHT sharp, but not quite to the comfortable-shave level. I use my Barber's Choice to finish the Gem edge. This is a really fine hone, and sometimes I'll do 20 or 30 laps, which leaves an edge nearly as sharp as any I can get with .5 micron diamond paste. To refresh the edge, I only need to do about 5 laps.

I haven't had any luck with my Swaty yet, but I plan to keep working at it.

Like the others said, the key seems to be holding the hone lightly in your palm and letting the blade glide over the hone. Tilting the hone toward the razor really helps.

Unlike the other guys, I've had the best results with a dry hone. I've tried lather and soap, and they seem to make too much suction and dull the edge. I'm planning to experiment with misting water from a spray bottle; when I pour it on the water beads up and runs off.

Barber hones sometimes seem to work well on blades that won't respond well to my Nortons or Belgian hones. I think they cut so slowly that they leave a finer edge than their grit would suggest.

Just my experience to date.

Josh

I have two barber hones, and until recently had little experience with them. But, a while ago, I decided to give them a chance. Since I never managed to put mirror finish on my Lithide hone, I concluded it was not meant to have one, and it is not a finishing hone. My experiments confirmed that.

So, I found that the Lithide is a bit coarser hone, I'd say rougher than the Norton 4000, and I rate it at around 3000 grit. With that knowledge, the Lithide works very well, and cutting fast.

The Itsapeech is a bit finer hone, but I haven't honed much on it yet. When I gain some more info, I'll update here...

Nenad

I just realised that I missed mentioning something - I consider Coticule and Escher (and others like it) barber hones too - but my previous answer was directed to what Lynn expected

Cheers
Ivo

I am going to sound a little (maybe a lot) ignorant, but what is the difference between a barber hone, and a regular hone? I have a Sapton Pro 8k, and a hone on a paddle which came with my straight razor (Col. Conk). Is the hone on the paddle a barber hone? Sorry for my elementary question.

There's no hard-and-fast definition for "barber's hone". I consider the small pocket-sized dry & lather hones to be barber hones, and these were the ones most commonly marketed by the barber supply wholesalers for honing use. SR Droescher did market a stone similar to the Escher (and may be one for all I know) but AFAIK they were the only barber outfitter to do so, and given the relative rarity of the Droescher stone vs the SRD Swaty it seems it wasn't exactly a runaway success.

I've got a barber's hone that the directions claim is suitable for barbers that like the belgian stones but want a more convenient stone for daily use, which implies that the waterstones were desirable but somewhat impractical in shop use.

Hal Wilson (who seems to have disappeared from all the razor boards I frequent) used to be a big proponent of barber hones and claimed to have perfected their use. Based on his recommendation a couple years ago, I bought a "Honemaster" from Tilly and gave it a try. It's about 2" x 4-3/8", pretty light in weight, and the same grit throughout (ie, both sides). It's fairly fine grained, so I don't use it for anything but touchups. I find it works best when I have a razor that starts to pull mid-shave... if a quick stropping fails to remedy the problem, 2-5 strokes on this hone (dry) plus another stropping gets me through the shave and maybe a week or two more before I have to head for the "real" hones. I take it with me when I travel in case I need something more than a strop. FWIW, I have also tried it wet and with lather, but I prefer it dry (as the instructions that came with it recommended). As with most hones, a very light touch works best.

I've used a Swaty and the Carborundum 103 with great results and the Lithide hone with spotty results. With the Lithide some razors worked and some wouldn't, so I tossed it.

I have never tried to hone up a razor with a barber hone, I only update with them. Well I take that back I used to a few years ago use them as my "finishing stones" because I didn't understand how to use the 8K side of the Norton.

I use the Carborundum with 6-30 light strokes, usually dry then with lather.

The Swaty is kinda funny, a little inconsistent (I think its my fault some) but it either puts the sharpest edge on the planet on a razor or produces an ok edge. It responds better to carbon for me.

What I like the most is how slow they are and how its nearly impossible to over hone with the Carborundum. Its a very wierd hone, almost has a semi pourous surface. The all come with specific directions for how to update hone an edge you've been shaving with, usually in the 6-10 light strokes area. My favorite text was "to use a light airy stroke" not only did that work well but my honing improved on every stone when I started using light airy strokes.

Now I find the Norton far better, just like you, but there was something cool that happend to my honing when using a barber hone that made everything click.