Two quick barber's hone questions

1. Lapping: I've seen people referring to a shiny barber's hone as needing a good lapping, since the surface has become too smooth/worn to be effective. On the other hand, I've also read people talking about lapping a barber's hone with progressively finer grits until the surface becomes shiny! So what kind of finish should the surface of a barber's hone have, ideally? (matte or shiny)

2. Use: I've read at least a few people talk about doing light touch-up work between shaves with a barber's hone. Something along the lines of only 4-8 passes before stropping and shaving. This question has two parts: how many people find such frequent light touch-up work to be beneficial, and how often can/should it be done without putting excessive wear on a blade?

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by northpaw

1. Lapping: I've seen people referring to a shiny barber's hone as needing a good lapping, since the surface has become too smooth/worn to be effective. On the other hand, I've also read people talking about lapping a barber's hone with progressively finer grits until the surface becomes shiny! So what kind of finish should the surface of a barber's hone have, ideally? (matte or shiny)

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We're talking about two different kinds of shinny. As you use any hone, you're removing steel from the razor. That steel has to go somewhere, and while a lot of it is rinsed away as swaff, a lot of it gets down into the pores of the hone. If you've ever changed the clutch in a car, think of it as being sort of like a friction disc that has been glazed by somebody riding the clutch.

The purpose of lapping in this case, is to grind past that "glazed" layer, but still leave a nice smooth/even surface for honing.

The other thing that happens with all hones (although much faster with some) is that the surface will wear with use, and it won't do it evenly.

When in doubt, lap the hone because it will fix both of these issues. Also, just fair warning, I recently lapped my first barber hone and found that it was a very slow process because it was such a hard hone to begin with.

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Originally Posted by northpaw

2. Use: I've read at least a few people talk about doing light touch-up work between shaves with a barber's hone. Something along the lines of only 4-8 passes before stropping and shaving. This question has two parts: how many people find such frequent light touch-up work to be beneficial,

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Well, I certainly do. It's also a practice that's almost as old as straigh razors. Also, I think that most barber hones are used more in the 2-5 passes range.

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Originally Posted by northpaw

and how often can/should it be done without putting excessive wear on a blade?

Thanks!

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I've been wondering that one myself. Hopefully somebody has an answer. However, it only needs to be done when you start to notice that the razor does shave as smoothly anymore.

Thanks for the reply. I tried it today with a razor that had lost a little smoothness. I did 5 laps on my hone (dry) and then ten on my pasted loom strop. I shaved right off the chromium oxide this time, without any additional stropping on leather. Great BBS shave.

Thing is, I've got tremendously wiry whiskers. (When I grew a goatee once, it wanted to stick almost straight out. :D) Even though I've been trying to prep well and keep my cutting angle as low as possible, I still feel like I'm dulling my blades a good bit with each shave, so that the next shave is never quite as good. I'd be fine doing a few strokes on the barber's hone before almost every shave, but I'd hate to think that I'm significantly reducing the life of my razors.

I've got some pretty seriously coarse beard hair as well, and you're right. Each shave does dull the razor just slightly.

However, if you found that you had a better shave right off the CrO than after a good stropping, I can't help but wonder if there's something amiss with your stropping technique.

Could be. Also, my strop is homemade from a $3 strip of mystery leather I bought from a cobbler. I've been putting off getting a real one, but it's probably something I need to do before I get too wrapped up in honing intricacies. :hmmm:

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. $3.00 mystery leather is fine to get your going, but it's worth the investment to get a good strop once you figure out what you're doing.

Also, a linen strop will do a lot of edge restoration. Using good quality linen strop and good quality leather strop before each shave, I didn't start to feel I needed to hit the barber hone for about 6 weeks.

It sounds like veedub has already gotten you sorted out. Linen, cotton, or canvas, as well as a good leather strop will definitely help you keep your razor sharper. As far as the honing goes, do it when the shave quality diminishes and don't worry about wear on the razor. You're better off with wearing out your razor rather than your face. Besides, it's going to take you a very long time to wear out a razor with a barber hone.

Great advice, guys. Thanks!