Thread: Soap on the hone ?

Not wanting to see the Swaty thread hijacked I am starting this thread here. Years ago I frequented barber shops in Newark, NJ looking for razors and hones. The old barbers that I talked to would use hot lather from their Lather King machines rather then water to lubricate the coticule that they routinely used.

Nowadays I know one fellow who says he gets great results with a drop of dish washing liquid on his DMTs. Anyone else use soap on to hone with on their rocks? I am going to give some lather a try on my coticule. I would be reluctant to try dish soap on my Escher, Norton or Shapton. I wonder if it would tend to clog the stone?

The dish washing liquid soap or the shaving lather both do the same thing. It's not the lubrication, its the suction. The soap sucks the blade onto the hone like a vacuum. This means the blade is evenly held onto the hone and therefore being fully tensioned the edge is hitting the hone evenly and more smoothly throughout the stroke.

I have used this trick with a swaty and some other old barbers hones and it works and improves the final polishing that that type of hone can provide.

I don't find the soap trick helps on my natural hones though. In fact I think you get a better result on for example a yellow coticule with just water. The soap seems to add a layer and detract from the polishing process.

The soap will not harm your hone. It will help to keep it clean.

The only hone I use soap on is my DMT. It seems to help avoid the skipping and chatter you get from a coarse stone...especially if I use the 325 grit.

I'll have to look at the instructions again but as I recall Shapton specifically mentions NOT using soap on their stones but I'm not sure why.

Originally Posted by AusTexShaver

The only hone I use soap on is my DMT. It seems to help avoid the skipping and chatter you get from a coarse stone...especially if I use the 325 grit.

I'll have to look at the instructions again but as I recall Shapton specifically mentions NOT using soap on their stones but I'm not sure why.

On the DMTs I assume you know that taking a plane or a chisel or some such thing and giving the plate a going over breaks it in for razors. Kind of knocks down the high spots.

I use soap and water on my DMT when removing a lot of material, but do not use soap or lather on my waterstones. I'll have to try some lather on my Swaty, that sounds interesting.

Originally Posted by JimmyH-AD

On the DMTs I assume you know that taking a plane or a chisel or some such thing and giving the plate a going over breaks it in for razors. Kind of knocks down the high spots.

Good tip!

When I first got my DMT I didn't know about the need to "break it in" and couldn't figure out why I was getting less than stellar results. It's been used so much now that it's almost too smooth and it takes twice as long to lap my other hones.