Thread: Advice for Cleaning/Restoring Barber Hones

I didn't see a DIY thread on what to do with old barber hones.
I've seen a few recommendations on how to remove oil and I think mineral oil and boiling Vaseline were suggested as means to condition them.

What do you do with old barber hones? Is certain things you do with each barber hone you get?

Also, what is your preferred method for cleaning natural stones?

Thanks

You'll get some varying opinions on this question... I am in the camp that believes that some barber hones are not able to be restored to their original conditioning after being lapped or very heavily used. I have some barber hones that despite my best efforts in reconditioning every way I could think, are never the same after lapping.
My preferred method of removing oil is a light soak in some dawn and water and a good scrubbing with a nylon brush. Again though, YMMV.
In terms of restoring the hones that can be reconditioned... I generally will lap the hone to a fairly high grit (1000 in most cases) and then take some lather and burnish it with a screwdriver for a few minutes.

Cleaning natural stones also is a matter of preference. And also a matter of what kind of stone it is. I've never really needed to clean anything but an oilstone, and for those my patented dawn-water + nylon brush method seems to work fine followed by some heavy palm rubbing. You'll probably get some better tips from users that are more involved in oil stones here though. I tend to stay with water for the most part. Good luck!

Get in touch with Modine. He knows a lot about stones and how to clean/lap them.

Thanks Butzy, and I was actually thinking about contacting Modine rolodave. He seems to be the resident Barber Hone expert.

Do you have a particular hone in mind?
I ask because how you treat it can depend on how it was made.

How about a frictionite hone I lapped one side of it many moons ago, visually it looks ok but it would be nice to know if i hurt it or if there is anything i can do to condition it.

I agree that Modine is the man when it comes to all things barber hone related. I'm not sure what the OP means by "boiling Vaseline". But heat will not be good for most BHs. My silver haired barber says they were told in barber school to keep heat including hot water away from them. I can tell you that I have successfully reconditioned two or three frictionites with Vaseline and they responded well.

As far as cleaning natural stones you will likely get better responses if you provide more details. What is the stone and what are you trying to remove from it?

The Vaseline does not have to be boiling. It simply has to be warmed enough to lower its viscosity. You really don't need to warm it much past body temperature of 99F for it to begin to liquefy. The easiest way to do that is to have the container of Vaseline in a saucepan of water and then slowly heat the water. Effectively it will be a mini-double-boiler.

Once it has become sufficiently liquid, dip you finger into it and paint it onto the hone. Let it sit for an hour, day, or week, and then wipe off any residue.

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.

Interesting so what does Vaseline do to the hone?