Thread: hone question

HeLlo all. If i wanted to buy one stone to kep my daily shavers going what would that be. they all have been honed by pros in the past but i need to up keep them and am starting to learn to do so. The stones i have are either cheap or old and i want something good. I have been able to keep them somewhat sharp with what i have but its time to invest. What would any of you suggest. obviously talking combo stones but norton belgian what?

All you really need is a good barbers hone such as the SWATY. or a Keen Kutter. These will maintain and edge, the others( Nortons etc) are for creating or repairing an edge.

where do i find either of those? every site i see has shaptons or nortons no barber hones.

Agreed. A coticule will also serve that purpose nicely and will allow a little more flexibility as using it with slurry will allow more cutting and without slurry will serve better for polishing.

I was responding to Nun2Sharp.
I response to your question about barber hones, unfortunately your best resource is likely ebay. A warning about those though is that you will almost definitely need to lap the surface and bevel the edges of any barber hone.

I actualy just realized i have a swaty barbers hone and didnt realize it. What is best to use with that oil or water. I foud it in my dads stuff but didnt try it until recently and it worked well with nortons honing oil. would water work better?

I've always used water on mine. Here is a thread with photos of the instructions and they say water or a thin oil. Read the thread and you will find that everyone who has one needed to flatten it. If it ain't flat it can be counter productive. Try it out and see how it does but I am with Utopian, I think a coticule will be a better choice if you go for an all around stone.

In my opinion, neither oil or water is best. I would never want the mess of the oil and when you put water on a Swaty, it just beads up and gets pushed off by the blade. Lather is the best thing to use on most barber hones.

A barber hone(s) is what I use. I get good results dry, better results with water, and the best results (sharpest edge) with lather. This dry-wet-lather progression seems to work with all my different barber hones, including the Swaty.