Thread: Franz Swaty Hone

Sorry to revive a long dead thread, but yesterday I found a stash of straight razors, old safety razors, and a very old Franz Swaty hone in my Dad's stash of antiques from an old family home.

The Franz Swaty stone has some very minor surface damage to it on both sides. This is from being stored in an old Old Spice box for the last fifty or so years. Is it possible to lap the Swaty stone? I really don't want to use it with the surface in the shape it's currently in. What would be a good choice to lap it with, if it's possible to lap it?

Thanks in advance...

You can definitely lap that sucker up. It does take some work because it is a VERY hard stone. It took me about 30 minutes to lap my few on a DMT 325. Good luck and enjoy.

IsaacRN, thank you very much! I'm ordering the DMT dia-sharp extra fine and extra extra fine hones today. If the EF won't lap the Swaty, I'll order the coarse dia-sharp. It would be nice to have on hand for knives, anyway.

Thanks again!

Edit: Now I just need to find directions on how to correctly use the Franz Swaty, and where it would fall in the sharpening progression. Anyone spare a link or a few words of advice?

I would really suggest getting the coarse stone. It is an all around GREAT stone for lapping most hones. I really dont think the EF or EEF DMT would be good for lapping personally...and its a good possibility that you may ruin the finer DMT's.

I agree with Isaac. I own all DMT D8s except the EEF. Trying to lap on the D8E would take you forever if at all. I do use the D8E for final lapping of my natural stones, but that's only doing maybe 25 passes on a hone/stone that's already been lapped by the other DMTs in progression.

Chris L

You guys have me convinced; I'll get the coarse one, too.

I've been reading up on the Swaty, and I see it's around 10k-12k. The only remaining question: wet or dry?

Wet...you dont need to soak it though. But when you hone with it, splash some water on it.

I prefer to use my swaty with a little bit of lather, I believe the soap keeps the metal particulite suspended in the lather rather than embedding in the stone. As for instructions about use just look a couple of posts ahead of your request for instructions(AFDAVIS11).

What ever happened to our good friend AFDavis? Either he is remarkably silent these days or I don't see so swell.

I wondered the same thing, Bruce. Where has Alan been?

We should have a "Where are they now" sticky where we can post such things. There was another guy, Dewey from TX that seemed to have dropped off the map.

Chris l