Thread: Carborundum Hones

I have a Carborundum 118S razor hone. It seems pretty rough, grit-wise. I took an ebay razor too it, and it seemed duller than what I had gotten with 1500 grit sandpaper (but maybe it was my technique).

Anyone know where these hones lie on the grit scale?

I have a Carborundum Co. #106 silicon carbide hone, recently lapped for me by member Josh Earl. It is very smooth to the touch, so much so that I imagine it would only serve as a finishing hone. The instructions say "but a few strokes" will suffice to bring a razor to shaving sharpness, and that can only apply to a blade that was already pretty sharp. That's as much as I can say, so far...

-denis

Denis,

I was pretty surprised by how that hone lapped up. It looked like a 1K stone to start with, and felt like one, too. Then it lapped to a mirror-like smoothness...

The barber manual I have does seem to indicate that you could shave with the edge from a carborundum, but it also said they were fast hones and not good for learning to hone on.

Josh