Thread: Barber Hones

Hi Guys,

One of the other forums was having a discussion regarding Barber Hones and as there has always been a group of Barber Hone proponents, I thought it would be interesting to get some information from you guys. I don't regularly use a Barber Hone as I find them very hard to handle and way too slow for most of the honing I do. It is also hard to determine the grit on them and there are a million varieties out there. That being said, I have tested them and used several for touch ups on occasion.

So.........What brands of razors are you guys honing with Barber Hones? Which Barber Hones are you using? How many strokes on a touch up? How many on a re-hone job? How many on an Ebay Special. Lather? Water? Oil? X-Pattern? Circles? It would be very interesting to hear more than I like Barber Hones and give the new guys an idea of exactly what is involved in their use and how much time is involved with each razor. I'm sure there is a lot of experimentation much the same as with a Norton and the polishing stones, but the specifics are not often discussed.

This should be fun.

Lynn

Well, they are slow, and mostly suited to touching up an already-sharp razor.

I've used mine on friodurs, pumas, various swedes, gencos, watervilles, W&b and wostenholm, etc. Friodurs take more strokes, but that's typical. I find the manufacturer's directiosn are optimistic, if they say 3 strokes I usually need 5 (10 for a friodur).

The key is lapping them really flat, and holding them really loose so the razor will tilt the hone to match its angle, even if you don't use any pressure. I don't get the kind of edge off of them that I get off the chrome oxide, but that's no sin. I do get good-shaving edges off the barber hones.

My favorite barber hone is the DD combination hone, you can take a badly-pulling razor to shaving sharp with 10 laps on the coarse side and 10 laps on the fine side. 10 laps on chrome oxide and you're done.

from the barber hones I must say I like my Swaty the most. I have used it on many razors. Off the top of my head - used it on Pumas, Heljestrand, W&B, DD, Engstrom, Genco

The Swaty does a good job of touching up most razors in 10 or so laps, and more laps can handle bigger jobs. I use whatever I feel like - mostly X, but have also done circles and just sections of a razor (e.g. - toe)

Lithide - has been ok on WKC and a couple of other razors, didn't seem to work as well as the Swaty.

I like to use them dry, but have tried water and oil. Too many laps on a dry barber's hone seem counterproductive - dulling the edge

Hope this helps
Ivo

My absolute favorite barber hone is an Aloxite hone by The Carborundum Company. It puts an edge that's comparable (though not quite as smooth) to a 12k Chinese water stone in about 3-5 strokes for a touchup. For rehoning, I can often go up to 25 strokes for hard steel, 15 for Sheffield steel.
I've used it with saliva, water, oil, and lather. It seems to work best with oil and lather.
I only use X-strokes with it.

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.