Thread: Advice for Cleaning/Restoring Barber Hones

The short answer is kind of makes it brand new. I know some barber hones original packaging recommended rubbing in some Vaseline every few months with the palm of your hand. I have found that especially after lapping (as Butzy says above a topic of no little debate) it seems to re hydrate and smooth them out. On that lapping point - it is definitely no fun and I don't disagree with the school of thought says if it doesn't absolutely need lapping leave well enough alone, but of the dozens and dozens (I really need to make a list) of BHs I have lapped and re hydrated the only problems I have run into have been with a couple of Sears Craftsman hones that were already pretty far gone. By which I mean starting to get that white chalky appearance that indicates it may be too late the binder is going.

Originally Posted by Lazarus

While Utopian's suggested method might be closer to theoretical perfection, an easier way to warm the Vaseline for other sluggards like me is to just put some on your finger and rub it into the hone.

Yes!
Honestly, the only reason that I wrote what I did was in response to the mention of boiling Vaseline. While I DO think that heating it might be a little better, I usually have used your lazy (practical) method.

Thanks for the info guys.
Rubbing warm Vaseline into the stone sounds better to me. I'll have to make sure the type of stones I have warrant it.

Originally Posted by Razorfaust

Interesting so what does Vaseline do to the hone?

I believe it is supposed condition dried out stones and fill in the pores, but I may be wrong. I don't think it had any benefit to stones with binder that has deteriorated though. I guess there isn't anything you can do for those.

For some barber hones it helps to keep them from drying out and deteriorating. This petroleum jelly trick also helps for hones used with oil that are very porous. Soaking the petroleum jelly into the hone keeps it from absorbing huge amounts of oil and lets the oil stay on the surface rather than sucking into the hone.

If a barber hone has deteriorated to where the binder won't hold the abrasive particles in tightly, there's nothing to be done for it. Many of them can be used as a bevel setter at that point.

There is a lot of variation in barber hones, so it isn't really good to make broad sweeping statements that are supposed to apply to every case. Some should not be used with oil, some can be used with anything or even dry. Some are destroyed by heat, some can be baked in an oven. Some can be lapped as long as they're smoothed and polished afterward, and some are best as they are made - this is dependent on how the hone is made.

Some of the methods used to make the hones seemed to use an aggregate filler sort of like concrete. These may well have been vibrated to settle the coarser particles down into the mix before pressing, which would have kept them slightly away from the top surface - so lapping the hone at all may expose them just like if you cut into a concrete sidewalk or driveway and see all the larger rocks appear.

Others were pretty uniform throughout and lapping doesn't really affect them as long as they're smoothed/burnished out after lapping. "You pays your money and you takes your chances" when lapping the former, the latter are usually fine.

Originally Posted by eKretz

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There is a lot of variation in barber hones, so it isn't really good to make broad sweeping statements that are supposed to apply to every case. Some should not be used with oil, some can be used with anything or even dry. Some are destroyed by heat, some can be baked in an oven. Some can be lapped as long as they're smoothed and polished afterward, and some are best as they are made - this is dependent on how the hone is made......

+1....Spot on!