Thread: Dubl Duck Dry Hone - Anyone have?

I bought one of these that is new in the box. It has two different grits to it and the instructions read as follows:

"Extremely Fine Finishing Honing is assured on the dark side of this hone if you draw blade from hone with only an inch or less forward motion. Then strop razor a few strokes lightly on your leather strop.
In all sharpening and stropping of razors it should be remembered you are handling 10,000 very small delicate teeth. An edge that gives only the sensaton of smoothness when shaving can be uniformly and quickly produced by following above directions.
The light colored side of this hone will be found very valuable for quickly getting very dull edges into condition for final or finish honing. Both sides are excellent used dry. Lather or water may be used if desired."

I thought the inch of motion line was interesting. Anybody care to shed some lighton this statement as well as the dry nature of this hone. Also, how fine is it compared to other popular hones?

Thanks

Sounds like a nice stone.

Originally Posted by Korndog

... only an inch or less forward motion.

I wonder if it's not a warning about how fast it can cut. I've used some very "short laps" at the end of my pyramid to great success in the past.

Hi there Korndog,

I've got one of those Dubl Duck combo hones along with over 40 other Barber hones. It's an excellent hone and should serve you well. You could also use it with water or lather too, for even finer grit results.

The instructions tell you a simple fact about honing str8s, namely that short strokes in an X pattern are superior to long ones. I have a video clip (I believe) of Dave Uthe using a huge Norton 3 X 8 placed on his lap. Yet, he uses only a few inches of the entire hone. Barber hones are small for the simple reason that they don't need to be any larger because the optimum X stroke pattern is short not long. Once you discover this for yourself, you'll be surprised how much your honing skills improve.

Congrats on your new hone. Barber hones are remarkably high quality tools; the wide variety still available provides lots of opportunity for experimentation and fun.

Hal

Thanks for the info Hal. Last night I tried a the short strokes on a razor that needed a little work and it worked beautifully. I was able t get a better X than when I went the length of the stone. I also wonder if this reduces the likelihood of producing a wire edge. It seems the shorter travel on one side might help.

The short distance is not as much a key as is keeping the razor very flat in the X pattern and using very little pressure. This goes with any stone. If you want to see a nice demo on a little barber hone, check out Greg Ives video done by John West. Lynn

Originally Posted by adjustme69

The short distance is not as much a key as is keeping the razor very flat in the X pattern and using very little pressure. This goes with any stone. If you want to see a nice demo on a little barber hone, check out Greg Ives video done by John West. Lynn

Hi Lynn , Larry and Xman,

Yes, Greg Ives does offer an excellent demonstration on how to use barber hones. Lynn's right to stress that "keeping the razor very flat in the X pattern and using very little pressure" are essential. At the same time, after all the barber hones I've experimented with, generally speaking, I get consistently better results using shorter strokes. For that matter, if you watch Greg Ives (he uses a shorter combo hone) you'll see the that his strokes are relatively short as well.

Hal

I have that cd, I'll check it out. I was thinking that this type of motion is the opposite of what I would do while trying to raise a burr for traditional knife sharpening; Hence, my wire edge theory.

Also, I would think you need to be very watchful for dishing on your long stones using a small area.

Larry,

A shorter stroke--involving more of a pull than a push across the hone, so to speak--helps keep the blade flat with even pressure along the blade. You're right to be sure that the hone is absolutely flat. This is essential. Regardless of how good your technique may be, a hone that has not been properly lapped, regardless of size, will cause all sorts of problems.

Hal

It's funny how everything works differently for different people. The problem is that when new people come in and try to hone up a junky ebay razor on a barber hone from scratch, they get frustrated easily. I like having about 30 barber hones to play with as well and by shear size, they require a shorter stroke. Like everything else a short stroke panacea does not exist, but is an other alternative. What makes this even more fun, is that each razor has it's own characteristics and in many cases hones up differently and may require several different techniques. For the most part, unless you are investing hundreds and hundreds of strokes, the barber hones are not for a really dull razor. They do a nice job though on touching up a razor and the instructions on many of the barber hone boxes indicate that 5-6 strokes are what should be used to touch up a razor. What a fun sport, eh? Lynn

Originally Posted by adjustme69

...the instructions on many of the barber hone boxes indicate that 5-6 strokes are what should be used to touch up a razor. What a fun sport, eh? Lynn

This makes one wonder
Was there once a time when razors did actually come ready to shave? If not then you would think the masons that produced these hones would illistrate the need for more effort in their instructions??
Just a thought and a sign of how much things really do change over time.