Thread: Testing my long Swaty

Even though I've had the stone for a while now, today was the first day I shaved with blades off my long Swaty. I was shave testing blades, but, in a way, also testing the Swaty.

So let me start with a bit about the hone. She is about 8 x 2 x 1/2. I only lapped the front side, so my actual honing surface is more like 7 x 2. The hone has two lines of text; the first line says "FRANZ SWATY" and the second says "MARIBOR, JUGOSLAVIEN." I lapped the front with a DMT C and then rubbed the Swaty up against my C12K (or Natural Chinese polishing stone, if you prefer) to get rid of the scratch marks.

So, back to the testing. The first blade I used was a 5/8 Wostenholm frameback (of the traditional frameback design, the Swedish looks). I started on that blade with my normal progression: King 1K, BBW slurry (diluted until BBW with water), coticule with water. Then, instead of going to my C12K, I went to the long Swaty with water for 25 laps. This test was to see what kind of a final polish the Swaty could put on a blade.

The second blade was an 8/8 W&B "For Barber's Use" wedge. With this one, I set the bevel on my 1K and then went straight to the Swaty with water for about 100 passes (rinsing off the hone and blade every 25 strokes or so). I did this because I've always heard that in addition to being a good polisher, Swaty's are supposed to be pretty fast cutters.

On to the shave. I'd not shaved in about a week or so, so I had a fair bit of a beard going on. I started off WTG on my right cheek with the Wosty. Great shaving all the way - passed the shave test with flying colors. I then went to my left WTG with another blade that was not part of the test (she's not quite there). Finally, it was time to pull out the W&B, which I was most interested in. I was running a TTC (Towards the Chin) + upper lip pass, so it was a bit of WTG, some XTG, and a bit of ATG from my neck up to my chin. I saved this bit for the W&B because it is, on my face, the toughest hair and also the most sensitive bit. I have to say, I was quite impressed. There was a little pulling on my upper lip (nothing noteworthy elsewhere), but still an acceptable shave. I think that with another 25-50 laps on the Swaty, she'd have been there.

So, here are my early conclusions. This two lined, long Swaty works great as a final polisher. She's also a pretty quick cutter, and could quite possibly be worked into my honing progression in the middle as well as towards the end, or perhaps replace the BBW/coticule. I realize that running in excess of 100 laps seems like a lot, but considering that I would not have to raise a slurry, worry about diluting the slurry, switch between three stones (BBW/coticule and a finishing hone), it's really not a bad tradeoff.

I want to play more with that W&B to see how many more passes on the Swaty are needed to get the blade into top form. I also want to do some comparisons between my C12K and the Swaty to get a sense of which edge I prefer. What I can say now, though, is that I've very happy with this stone and very impressed with what she can do.

There's a reason 5 million Swatys were made. I think you've discovered what it is!

Just wanted to give a little update.

I took another shot at that 8/8 W&B that went straight from the 1K to the Swaty. Initially, I'd done 100 on the Swaty with water and there was still a little pulling. I went back for 75 more and now she's shaving like a champ.

I also took a Medium Sized Hollow Ground W&B straight from the 1K to the long Swaty with water today. I did 150 passes on the Swaty in rounds of 50, rinsing the blade and hone in between and she's shaving great.

I also used the Swaty at the end of my normal progression on an older W&B that I picked up (says "PATENT TEMBERED STEEL" on the tang and has "WADE & BUTCHER" right about where the spine rests on a hone; I'm quite sure she was reground so only about half of the Wade & Butcher is left and I taped the spine so as not to eat into the etching). Anyway, the Swaty put a very nice finish on her, too.

I'm real impressed with this Swaty, and I'm eager to see what she can do with some non-Sheffield steel. Good thing I've got some in the way...

Pretty cool!
How come you make such a large jump, from the 1K to the Swaty? Curious minds want to know...

Thanks,
Mac

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Just wanted to give a little update.

I took another shot at that 8/8 W&B that went straight from the 1K to the Swaty. Initially, I'd done 100 on the Swaty with water and there was still a little pulling. I went back for 75 more and now she's shaving like a champ.

I also took a Medium Sized Hollow Ground W&B straight from the 1K to the long Swaty with water today. I did 150 passes on the Swaty in rounds of 50, rinsing the blade and hone in between and she's shaving great.

I also used the Swaty at the end of my normal progression on an older W&B that I picked up (says "PATENT TEMBERED STEEL" on the tang and has "WADE & BUTCHER" right about where the spine rests on a hone; I'm quite sure she was reground so only about half of the Wade & Butcher is left and I taped the spine so as not to eat into the etching). Anyway, the Swaty put a very nice finish on her, too.

I'm real impressed with this Swaty, and I'm eager to see what she can do with some non-Sheffield steel. Good thing I've got some in the way...

Glad to see my W&B 8/8 is coming along nicely, you'll need my address when?

Joe

Originally Posted by McWolf1969

Pretty cool!
How come you make such a large jump, from the 1K to the Swaty? Curious minds want to know...

Thanks,
Mac

Well, I knew the Swaty would be able to put on a good finish, and I've always heard that Swaty's are fast cutters. I'd never really spent enough time on the little Swaty's to see how fast they cut because... well they're so little and it would have taken double the number of strokes. Now that I have a long Swaty (and the lenght matches my other hones, so I can use the same X pattern), I wanted to see just how fast she is.

As it turns out, I'm pretty sure that going from my 1K straight to the Swaty takes less time than if I was to use my regular BBW/Coticule progression. I also think that since I'm not using any slurry, which I was on the BBW, going straight to the Swaty might be a bit more consistant. I'm not sure that I'll knock out my BBW/Coticule, because I know I can get that to work for a lot of different blades, but I think it's cool to have this alternate route.

Originally Posted by Joeman

Glad to see my W&B 8/8 is coming along nicely, you'll need my address when?

Joe

Haha, just after you need my PayPal account info. Seriously, though, I plan on keeping this particular one, but I've got you on my "please PM me" list.

I hear you!

In all seriousness, thanks for the info, good stuff for those of us ( not seeking to hone a large number of razors other than our own) trying to find a good finisher.

Joe

Synthetic vintage barber hones do not seem to be very popular. However, generations of barbers used them with good results. The Swaty is the only barber hone mentioned by name in Modern Textbook of Barbering. I am sure that says something about the quality of Swaty hones.

I recently bought this Yokoma hone: Vintage "YOKOMA" Razor Hone C. Klauberg & Bros - eBay (item 130313099954 end time Jun-23-09 08:25:04 PDT)

It is a really fast cutter and gets your razor shave ready. Cutting edge off the Yokoma is a bit harsh but it gets you a BBS shave.

It's interesting, my knowledge of barber hones, along with any hone for that matter, is very limited. I have seen posts by some folks that talk about a few other barber hones that seem to work well. I picked up a SWATY as it was a know entity and didn't want to stray to far from the path, less I get myself and my razor's in trouble. I do think it's funny that a three line SWATY can be had for $20 -$30 while a DD hone fetches a pretty hefty price on ebay these days and I've not heard much that the DD outperforms the SWATY.

Joe