Thread: A barbers hone

What is it and/or what are the approximate grits that one should look for?

Is it just an 8k or more of a 6k?

They were just small hand-held ceramic hones for the most part. Grit varied but was typically 6-10k. With ceramic hones it's difficult to judge the grit because this can be changed by the level of polish on the ceramic - the more polished it is the finer it will hone, up to some limit. But they will all work if your skill is sufficient - they were made for practicing tradesmen after all. Just find one that you like and stick with it until you've really mastered it and it will do fine.

Edit: One caveat is that in some of these old hones the binder is beginning to degrade and they may not perform very well at all. I've got a NOS Craftsman razor hone that is like this, and my 3-line Swaty exhibits this to a lesser degree. So just because your barber hone is "supposed to be good" doesn't mean your example really is good.

There are no hard and fast rules regarding barber hones. If anyone knows it would be Lynn or Sticky as they collect them. It is a buy and try type of situation. The Swaty has been estimated to be in the 10 to 12k range but that is not certain. I have a couple of Swatys and that is where they seem to be IME.

Originally Posted by mparker762

They were just small hand-held ceramic hones for the most part. Grit varied but was typically 6-10k. With ceramic hones it's difficult to judge the grit because this can be changed by the level of polish on the ceramic - the more polished it is the finer it will hone, up to some limit. But they will all work if your skill is sufficient - they were made for practicing tradesmen after all. Just find one that you like and stick with it until you've really mastered it and it will do fine.

Edit: One caveat is that in some of these old hones the binder is beginning to degrade and they may not perform very well at all. I've got a NOS Craftsman razor hone that is like this, and my 3-line Swaty exhibits this to a lesser degree. So just because your barber hone is "supposed to be good" doesn't mean your example really is good.

What do you mean by the binder? You make it sound like over time the stuff that holds the hone together falls apart (i.e. hone crumbles)! Is that what you mean? I hope it isn't....that's a scary thought!

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

What do you mean by the binder? You make it sound like over time the stuff that holds the hone together falls apart (i.e. hone crumbles)! Is that what you mean? I hope it isn't....that's a scary thought!

I have quite a few barber hones but have only seen this crumbling a couple times. In both instances they were Swaty clones. If the hone looks good when you get it, odds are that it will outlive you so don't worry about it.

Essentially yes that's what happens. The binders were made from a variety of substances, some of which weren't necessarily stable over a century or more. I've heard of such binders as rabbit hide glue hardened with alum, and different flavors of lacquer hardened with different additives. The problem is that once you get to a fine grit abrasive it's difficult to find a binder that is a smaller grit than the abrasives you're trying to embed.

I don't know what grit my Craftsman hone was supposed to be when it was made, but it was NOS and clearly labelled as a razor hone (box + instruction sheet), and I'd estimate it at around 500 grit now, and just rubbing your hand across it will remove material from the hone. My 3-line Swaty is also sufficiently decayed as to be unusable, bits of hone flake off under normal use and it's effectively no more than about 4000 grit right now. SRP member and noted honemeister el alemein has similar issues with some of his swatys.

I personally think that if you want a barber hone to actually use that you're better off getting into the Spyderco hones, which are fresh, consistent, have a reasonably well-estimated grit, and are readily available both locally and on the net. And like the barber hones of old, you can play with the level of polish to change their effective grit. An unpolished Spyderco UF seems to be around 12k grit, but if you polish it till it shines then you can make it perform like a much finer hone. Best to do this to just one side though, since you'll need something faster and coarser as well.

Originally Posted by mparker762

I personally think that if you want a barber hone to actually use that you're better off getting into the Spyderco hones, which are fresh, consistent, have a reasonably well-estimated grit, and are readily available both locally and on the net. And like the barber hones of old, you can play with the level of polish to change their effective grit. An unpolished Spyderco UF seems to be around 12k grit, but if you polish it till it shines then you can make it perform like a much finer hone. Best to do this to just one side though, since you'll need something faster and coarser as well.

When you say polish it are you referring to using a finer and finer grit lapping material or once lapped doing some sort of buffing wheel thing ? I have a set of these that I bought used and lapped on one side. I haven't really tried them enough to come to an opinion on them.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

When you say polish it are you referring to using a finer and finer grit lapping material or once lapped doing some sort of buffing wheel thing ? I have a set of these that I bought used and lapped on one side. I haven't really tried them enough to come to an opinion on them.

I just use progressively finer lapping material, though if it's already flat then a buffer would work too I suppose. I tend to use the white Shapton lapping powder that they sell for lapping their 8k-30k hones - I sprinkle it on one of my big white Ouachitas along with a little shaving lather and put the ceramic hone on top of it and rub away until it gleams. If you've got two spydercos then you can lap one against the other this way.

Also, just as it has become popular to cut a bit of a Chinese 12K to use as a rubbing stone, you can do the same with a Spyderco. I've done that with a UF and the resultant slurry does temporarily improve its cutting action until swarf build up interferes.