Thread: Advice needed: Buying a hone from the bay

I am looking for an inexpensive touch up hone (would love a Norton 4/8) I see quite a few on ebay but most sellers have no idea what the grit is they only can identify that one side is smooth and the other is rough.

Should I take a gamble or wait until I can actually afford a hone from a learned SRP member?

You are confusing yourself and me too.
touch up hone is different. it is barber hones.
but you want to sharpen blades then NORTON IS GREAT HONE TO START WITH.

I have said this tons of times, if you are new to this hobby STAY AWAY FROM E_BAY

Amazon has the Norton full set 220/1 - 4/8 and a lapping plate for $120 shipped wait and get that...

Ebay is only good for barber hones and vintage naturals...

If you want a norton go w/ glen's route.

There are several people in this forum who have quite a bit of experience with barber hones. A cursory look through this forum can help you find them, or just go straight to hi-bud-gl who is is probably the best guy to ask. If you see a barber hone that interests you, which is pretty much only useful for touch ups, you can send a PM to someone for their advice.

On the one hand it is true that a barber hone is ideal for touch ups but on the other hand you have to know what you're doing or you can make matters worse.

I first started with a Swaty (barber hone) and the Norton set that Glen recommended. Many razors later I kind of have an idea of what I'm doing.

There are no shortcuts and if you can get a good barber hone for between $20 to $50 that is fine but the Norton set would be a real good thing to have to sharpen and maintain your razors .... once you learn how to do it.

Get both if you afford to but getting the razor honed by a honemiester and maintaining it with your strop until you can afford more is also cool.

I am also a SR newbie, looking to purchase a vintage barber hone for blade maintenance. The barber hones attract me because they should last for a lifetime with proper upkeep, unlike a pasted strop, or so I have read. Vintage stones are all the better; I always like to reuse something rather than rape the earth for a new one, and I am interested in the history of such relics. It's a pity that none of my ancestors thought to pass his down.

The process of sorting out the various stones has been difficult. The wiki is a nice idea, but is painfully incomplete. I suppose it is easier to ask if there are any hones to avoid, but that still doesn't tell me the difference between a carborundum 103 and a carborundum 109, or if a William Enders Oak Leaf is for sharpening or polishing.

Does anybody have advice on how to research a vintage barber hone, or a basic guideline on buying them, or a link to a thread that will help people like jrlosh and myself? Or, as Utopian suggested, is it best to stumble across something, then seek out a specific answer?

Thanks in advance, and thanks so much for this forum; it is a bastion of the straight razor way.

Originally Posted by MisterLewisR

Does anybody have advice on how to research a vintage barber hone, or a basic guideline on buying them, or a link to a thread that will help people like jrlosh and myself? Or, as Utopian suggested, is it best to stumble across something, then seek out a specific answer?

Thanks in advance, and thanks so much for this forum; it is a bastion of the straight razor way.

Welcome to SRP. I see you've already been perusing the SRP Wiki and that is good. The search function is also very good for archived threads on various topics. I have mined them to good effect myself. Here is one barber hone thread from the archives.

The Carborundum 101 and 102 are well thought of barber hones, the Swaty, 00 frictionite, Itsapeech and others too numerous to mention. Others will no doubt have their favorites.

A 103 is a nice hard small touch up hone. A 109 is a larger two sided hone that is barely fine enough for touching up a razor--I think the finer side is still too coarse for a good shave. The Oak Leaf is similar to a Swaty and it should work fine.

The best way to learn about them is to either read lots of ebay ads as occasionally they can be informative, ask lots of questions here, or buy a lot of them and try them for yourself. I don't know of any other way.

I thought of another way--keep an eye out in the classifieds here. Most likely anyone selling here can advise you on how the hone actually works.

Here is another good thread from the archives and here is another.