Thread: Flattening barber hones

Excellent job Josh!

ye know ... I bought some barber hones from Tilly a couple of years ago and the only one I lapp'd was the lithide and 3 fritionites which I did with a carborundum 102 ..
I didn't even apprecaite that the other hones may need lapped .. I don't really use the barber hones apart from the fritionites on occasion . Think I'll check how bad the others are ...

Going on experience of lapping those little beauties Josh's service is invaluable to anyone looking to start with a nice lapped barber hone -- I know mine would have went to him first back when I started out ..

Garry

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

Yep, it was the cushion strop hone.

I figured out a way to lap it without any problems. I was kind of proud of myself, actually. What I did was put the DMT in a little basin of water so that the water just barely covered the surface of the diamond hone. Then I could lap to my heart's content without getting the leather side wet. It worked great.

I took the liberty of working on the leather side a bit afterwards. It was cupped and slick with gunk, so I cleaned it with lather, pumiced it and applied some conditioner. I think it might actually work as a strop now.

Josh

Cool!! Yes, it came in today and I noticed the leather looked MUCH nicer than it did when I sent it to you. Thanks!!! I'll give it a go soon and let you know!
Great work. Thanks Josh!!

I finally got my 325 DMT today (thanks, Howard!) and so I promptly grabbed my two barbers hones and went at it..... The first one was quite flat already but the surface sure improved from the ordeal. Before truing that hone, it was almost useless. My razors would rattle and slide over the surface as if it were made of smooth rippled glass.... really weird.

Next came my 2 line Swaty.... I'd flattened one side before on wet/dry and a marble tile and the Swaty has worked well for me. I started over using the DMT only to discover that what I thought had already been flattened, had NOT! It took a long time to get that side flat, I mean my arm was getting tired but I finally got it 90% flat with only some of the edges rolling off... not bad, no need to go further and waste abrasive. Then I flipped it over and started on the opposite side.... I gave up for the night. Man, these things take a lot of work to flatten. If you have one or more and you don't have a DMT and you're wondering if it's worth sending out to Josh, IT IS! I'm thinking of springing for the xtra coarse DMT but considering I only have one side left to do on this barber hone, it's probably wasted money. If I end up going on another ebay spree, grabbing barber hones left and right, I'll either order the extra coarse DMT or better yet, save my elbow grease for new razors and send Josh my hones... Heck, for what he charges, it's a bargain.

Just my two cents worth after giving this kind of work a go.


Regards

Christian

Thanks for sharing your experience. The 325 shortens the process from 10 hours to three or four.

I think the XX Coarse really rips off the surface so you can polish it on a finer hone. It ran me $80 or $90 shipped. If you plan on collecting hones, it's a good investment.

Josh

I second Randy on this: you're a saint, Josh.

A five dollar ebay lot I bought to my surprise and delight came with a very fine, barber hone size piece of vintage coticule. It was very delicate, about 1/8 inch thick with no slate backing, and fixed to a homemade paddle by means of nails in the wood with their heads sort of pushed against the side of the coticule to hold it in place. So I prized it loose and cemented it to one side of an old barber hone. Then I decided to lap down the other side of the barber hone so it would fit in its tin. I initially spent about 6 hours doing this, first on my 325 DMT, then more impatiently on 100 grit sandpaper, then cursing and shouting at the cat and switching to 40 grit sandpaper. Long story short it's 3 weeks later and the wife and cat have left me and I've lost my job and am sort of crouching in a dark corner of the room with bleeding fingertips and trembling and muttering to myself and gnawing at this barber hone with my teeth, and the tin still won't close.

Given that the whole thing around here is DIY, it may seem weird to mail off a hone to be lapped by someone else. But that is exactly what I'm going to do in the future.