Thread: Thoughts/opinions on dry barber hones

I recently won a steinmetz Portland cutlery barber hone
directions state to use it dry. I have not used a dry hone and was curious what the honemeisters of the forum thought of them or first hand experience?

TIA

I'm no honemeister, but I don't like how stray pieces of grit/dust feel on a dry hone, so I don't do it...ever.

As far as using a "dry hone", I think a lot of barber hones said they could be used dry or wet. Unless yours dissolves in water, I would get a little water splashed on that sucker if you plan on using it seriously. Either that or lather.

As a wanna be honemiester ( working on it ) I will say that 25 years ago when then 70 year old barber Frank Natale gave me a Swaty he demonstrated how to use it dry. Frank had been a barber for 50 years then and he kept a Swaty in his barber smock.

If he was doing a shave and the razor felt like it could use it he would do a few licks on the dry Swaty. He used lather on a coticule for his routine honing. I have used Swatys and other barber hones with water and dry.

I am not familiar with the brand you've got but all I can say is experiment and you'll see what works for you. BTW, other than the barber hones I don't hone dry ever.

I don't have a swatty. Haven't been able to nab one yet. But I do have a Spyderco UF that I use as my final finishing stone. It has the same feel as a barbers hone, to me anyway, and does a great job of polishing.

I have run some experiments to detrmine weather there was any difference in the quality of the finish between using it dry vs wet. Under my 200x USB microscope I could not see any visible difference. The next test, of course, was the shave. Again, I could not tell the difference in smoothness or shaving quality.

The feel between wet and dry was a bit different because of the water acting as a lubricant, but both were just as smooth. This must be qualified by the fact that the UF was lapped flat. I would think it would be totally irresponsible for anyone to use any stone with out flattening it.

So my take on this issue is basically it doesn't seem to matter dry or wet, but I do prefer wet.

JMHO.

Ray

Thanks for the responses thus far

I should clarify that I am only speaking of barber hones for touch ups between major Honing needs.

I think that this hone states it can be used dry but will be unaffected or damaged by water (not sure if that just means if it gets wet it won;t break down or if it also implies it can be used wet) but either way, once I get it I will snap some pics and post them here.

I did wind up with a John Primble barber hone but the day I got it, I took it out to of the box and dropped it on the floor - immediate breakage off the top 1/4 where the logo is/was.

I think the wet sometimes tricks you into overhoning as the slickness makes it seem it is not working since the barber hones are so smooth and hard.

Andy if directions says use only dry it will damage the stone. Some barber hones you can use with water or dry and some with oil.Depends on hone. can you post picture of it?
is that 1 color or 2 different colors/

Originally Posted by 44Whiskas

I think the wet sometimes tricks you into overhoning as the slickness makes it seem it is not working since the barber hones are so smooth and hard.

The old barber Frank N. stressed that only a few strokes with the weight of the blade ... no pressure... for touch ups. OTOH reading the instructions that come with a Swaty it says to do a few strokes and if it has not reached the level of sharpness required do as many as it takes (paraphrasing). Here are the instructions below... note that they specify that on a Swaty each side differs in grit with the logo side being the finer.

here it is - pocket sized
Front



Back:


Side:


Appears to be 2 sided which I did not know when buying it -
Is this even a barber hone?

Sure that is a barber hone. If the instructions don't specify one side being finer than the other it would be hard to figure out which is which IME but I bet it is designed for one side to be used first. Looks like a good one.

i'd guess one side is slightly finer may be logo side is finer my american barber hone says dry/wet/lather and also says logo side is finer than the back only slightly i tend to use wet i did'nt like using lather it seemed to leave a greasy residue on surfsce once i rinsed i tryed dry and i quite like the crisp sound.either way it will work the same