Thread: Adventures in barber's hone-land

Howdy guys! I've been creepily lurking in the shadows reading your every word and hungrily digesting everything you all say on here...(if you're creeped out at this point you should be. )

But seriously, too busy learning to be saying much.

A recently acquired razor was bought but needed restoration before shaving. Impatient (like normal) I set about on a 3k to set a bevel and actually think I did a pretty dang good job of it. By the time I was done it was cutting hare on my arm.

Unfortunately I don't have anything much finer than a 3k (waiting for a 4k/8k combo to arrive from ebay...) and I tried to shave with it.

Ouch.

Realizing that didn't work, I set about honing from 3k to shave ready... with my handy Apart barber's hone.

I could clearly see the striations on the bevel when I began. After more passes than I would like to admit, it is reflective like a mirror though some striations persist. Yesterday I got my first bearable shave out of it.

There are still some striations and I intend to continue with the Apart hone...by the time I'm done, should I see no more striations - just a smooth, mirror-like surface?

Anyways I was pretty happy with the ability of my Apart to move the edge along, though I would really prefer to have some other intermediate steps between 3k and whatever the Apart is (I hope high grit? Who knows though. )

You should be able to get a very coarse feeling shave off of the 3K. Somewhere there is a thread called the 1K shave. There is another that is called one stone with a barbers hone. Interesting stuff. The thing that makes the barbers hone tricky for taking such long jumps with is that the difference between enough and too much is quite short. The tendency is to check often at the start and then less later on because it has been a long process, when in reality it should be way more checking near the end. You will have you 4/8 soon enough and in preparation you could read through the JaNorton threads. If you want to try the 1K challenge with the 3K...

Originally Posted by RezDog

You should be able to get a very coarse feeling shave off of the 3K. Somewhere there is a thread called the 1K shave. There is another that is called one stone with a barbers hone. Interesting stuff. The thing that makes the barbers hone tricky for taking such long jumps with is that the difference between enough and too much is quite short. The tendency is to check often at the start and then less later on because it has been a long process, when in reality it should be way more checking near the end. You will have you 4/8 soon enough and in preparation you could read through the JaNorton threads. If you want to try the 1K challenge with the 3K...

The 1k shave, eh?

I'll look that up right now.

You say that "the difference between enough and too much is quite short."

Do you mean that there is little margin for error between 'honed' and 'overhoned'?

Actually, it is possible that your 3k hone might be the problem. Do you know its brand or from what it is made? Could you show a photo of it? An Apart is a very good hone and should be able to produce a perfectly shave-able edge off of a 3k hone, unless that 3k caused a lot of damage.

Yes. I was trying to say that the difference between over honed and honed nicely is not a lot of strokes. I had not considered your 3k, Ron may be ontosomething

Originally Posted by Utopian

Actually, it is possible that your 3k hone might be the problem. Do you know its brand or from what it is made? Could you show a photo of it? An Apart is a very good hone and should be able to produce a perfectly shave-able edge off of a 3k hone, unless that 3k caused a lot of damage.

I'm not sure. It's a cheap (Chinese?) hone I picked up used from a flea market. I was told it's a 3000 and it's definitely smooth but maybe not?

I bought and worked on this razor many months ago then put it aside. As I typed this up I recalled some more details:

It had a gigantic chip in the blade and I had to hone down a good 1/8 inch to get past it. I used a really low grit and tape to get past it: I used a cheap chinese alundum carbide combo stone with coarse / fine sides (not labeled, of course, but maybe 300-500 / 800-1000? I could be waaay off).

Once I got past the chip, I moved on to my "3000" grit. Its been so long I wonder if I just didn't stick to the '3000' long enough? Maybe that's why the bevel was dull and there were plain old eyeball-visible scratches?

The Norton will give me clearly defined grit ratings - that, I think, is part of my problem.

---

You say I should be able to get a shaveable edge from my Apart. That's good news. I've probably done close to 150 passes on the Apart to get it to this state. Is that unreasonable? I know Barber's hones are meant to be quick refreshers but you're saying I can use it as a finishing stone? Or even as more than that?

Generally barber hones are used for touch ups. Feel a little tug, swipe the razor across the hone a couple times, strop and shave. More of a really fast re-finisher than a typical finisher. I've successfully used mine as 'finishers,' but that's because I was a bit lucky and found 2 that are both finer than my Norton 8k. YMMV. I've never done such a large jump with just a B.hone so I couldn't tell you what's reasonable for it. I do know that off the Norton 8k it only takes 5-10 passes to get as good as it will get.

I just had a passing thought, did you lap that hone? New hones often have a really rough layer on top.

But do not lap the Apart hone!!!

Correct. I was strictly talking about the 3K.