Thread: Swatty clean up

Please help me out here. What is the objective of doing this Vaseline treatment?

Is it just cosmetic? Does it impart smoothness? Does it make clean-up after use easier?

Would a honing oil treatment work as well?

Originally Posted by PaulKidd

Please help me out here. What is the objective of doing this Vaseline treatment?

Is it just cosmetic? Does it impart smoothness? Does it make clean-up after use easier?

Would a honing oil treatment work as well?

I'm going with this information toward the end of thread.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...r-lapping.html

I wonder if my hone is "dry" or if I thinned the jelly to much.

I lathered up side 2 again a little thicker and set my oven at "150'F". I let it heat for about 10 minutes and turned it off. We will see how this goes.

Hmm, that makes me wonder. I have a couple of barber hones I wound up lapping. I didn't use the petroleum jelly trick, but I did burnish them with a chisel. They leave a damn fine edge on a razor, and they're a pleasure to shave off of...but I still wonder if it couldn't be just a hair better. Might have to give this a shot.

I must have been hearing it wrong before, but I thought you weren't supposed to lap barbers Hones, please don't take it that I,m questioning but that is what I've always heard.

Inquiring minds want to know. Tc

i have one that includes instructions for use as well as suggesting to refresh it with emery paper.

I think that you are right Tc unless you have an old piece of junk that is useless otherwise.

But if you decide to decide to lap one for whatever reason.....

After my few fast experiments I think that there may be an advantage of the petroleum jelly other than making it shiny. That is to make it waterproof. Once they are lapped the fine glaze/crust of the hone is removed and the actions of water on the surface are changed. By filling and coating the pores with petroleum at first glance it seems that is at least a good try at imitating the original surface qualities.

I have only used 4 brands of barber hones, 4 hones total, to refresh my razors on. I'm lucky to have many more in my collection.
with that said; none of the 4 hand their surface lapped, but two did have their edges chamfered due to minor chips.

I don't lap my barber hones unless there is a contaminant on the surface that cannot be removed without a cleaning & then only if the hone is not a "coated" surface. I will only lap it, if I wanted to use that hone. I have an old Swaty that I call,"Beat Up Swaty" ,,, a nice surface on both sides, but the 4 corners look like crap,,, paid less than $10.00 for it. This Beat Up Swaty is only used to clean up the edges on my knives & is used about once a week. I've had it for 3 plus years. I take a DMT 1200 & remove the embedded steel transfer after each use. There has been no ill effects with the cutting ability of this Swaty & I have not noticed a big difference in it's thickness.

OTH,,, I would never lap my Double Duck or Frictionite due to the composite make-up of the hone.

My barber used a coticule , five inch, to maintain his razors as he worked. he gave me this coticule & it is well "dished". I posted a thread on it last year. I don't think he even knows what lapping is.

Originally Posted by tintin

i have one that includes instructions for use as well as suggesting to refresh it with emery paper.

What brand and style of hone?

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I must have been hearing it wrong before, but I thought you weren't supposed to lap barbers Hones, please don't take it that I,m questioning but that is what I've always heard.

Inquiring minds want to know. Tc

In my opinion lapping a barber hone should be a last resort for a trashed, or very dished, hone. Leaving the original surface intact is more important than making it pristinely flat.

Originally Posted by tintin

i have one that includes instructions for use as well as suggesting to refresh it with emery paper.

Those instructions are common but I am quite certain that those instructions are for refreshing, not lapping, the hone. Refreshing a barber hone is done when the surface has been burnished to a point where it is no longer cutting and then fine emery paper is used JUST ENOUGH to restore its cutting capacity. If it used more than that then significantly more and larger pieces of grit will be exposed and the hone will cut in a much more coarse manner than it should.