Thread: Franz Swaty Hone

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

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?

Go here and find the two images of actual Swaty instructions. However, be aware that these are from a Swaty Alumin, which was a two sided hone. Most of the Swatys are homogenous so both sides are the same.

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

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

I'm not sure there is really a fixed answer to this one. Different razors like different things. In general, I like to polish on my Swaty, and then if I feel the need I do just a few passes with water. I've never tried lather, but that's just because I don't typically have lather around while I'm honing. Try them all, see what works.

get the coarse one i ruined a ef dmt on my other hones

The advantage of lather over water on a hone such as a Swaty is that the water tends to bead up and get pushed off of the hone, while the lather just gets moved around.

I got my Swaty twenty years ago from an old barber in Newark, NJ. At the time he showed me how he used it. He would keep one in his barber's smock and if a razor needed a touch up between shaves he would dry hone just a few passes. He only used the Swaty dry for touch ups until he had time to get back to his coticule with lather. He stressed that he only did a few passes to avoid over honing.

When I finally got into straight razor shaving successfully 8 months ago I lapped mine on a D8C and like IsaacRN it took a half hour. I used my Swaty with water to follow my Norton 8K until I bought other finishing stones. Now that I have those it has been sitting in the medicine cabinet.

On the three line versus two line thing, it seems that the original Swaty was made in Austria and was a big seller with barbers way back when. As previously mentioned the originals were made with both two lines of text and three. Apparently the three line must have been favored by professional barbers.

Back in those days traveling salesmen would go to barber shops and peddle their wares. I imagine that they had a lot of requests for the three line Swaty. Word got back to the suppliers and as a result The American Hone Co out of NY actually manufactured a hone that was embossed "Three Line Hone"on the end. Pike out of New Hampshire also had their "Pike Swaty". So I suppose, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, they were trying to horn in on the original Swaty's market.

I use lather on barber hones all the time but I never tried it on a coticule. I'll have to give that a shot. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Utopian

I use lather on barber hones all the time but I never tried it on a coticule. I'll have to give that a shot. Thanks!

The old barbers in Newark would use the lather from their hot Lather King machines on coticules. FWIW, a friend of mine who hones on DMTs says that a drop of dish washing liquid soap is very good on the diamond plates. Lubricates the surface. I don't hone on them so I haven't tried it. I may try the lather on a coticule. I would make it thin though the way it is out of those machines.

JoeD brought his coticule over to my place when we met up; IIRC, he said that if he's using it without slurry, he uses a drop or two of dish soap.

I started a thread on the soap/hone topic here so we don't hijack this one.