Printable View
I just acquired a "Reliance" barber hone. It's two sided with a label on the edge indicated the starting and finishing sides. It seems to be in nice shape, but I have two questions for the hone-ologists here.
First, is this a "dry" hone or do I use water, lather, oil or some other lubricant on this one. Somewhere I heard it was a dry hone, but I'm not wanting to risk my razors by mis-using it.
Second, doe anyone know the grit of this hone?
Many thanks, omniscient community of edgemen.
I haven't seen a "dry" hone that doesn't also say can be used wet...They could be out there, who knows, you would have to have the instruction sheet for your exact hone to know for sure...
I also haven't run across "Oil" barber's hones I guess they could have been made, but it really isn't conducive to the fast touch ups at the sink that these hones were made for...
A safe route for testing barber's hone is the swipe of lather across the hone and see how that does...
Remember these hones are not designed to really sharpen they are designed for touch up...
The grit question, is asked a lot, and I am not quite sure how to answer that...
The answer you are looking for is a comparison as to the finish and most fall in the 8k-12k range...
BUT that is not a true grit comparison Barber's hones are designed to cut very fast but still leave a smooth edge, so you can't really compare say a 12k Naniwa to a very slick Swaty "3 Line" they are not the same...
PS:
However as a side note I will tell you my test razor for barber's hones is getting quite an edge on it from all the testing I do on them... That razor started off pretty dull but every hone I get in, after I lap them, that razor gets 5 laps on each side before I deem the hones ready for sale.. I think a few more hones and I am going to test shave that little thing :)
Correcting myself here as I just opened up the box on a Simmons Hardware "Pon Honor" barber's hone to read "Can be used with Water, Oil, or Dry"
I've got a few Reliance hones. They are good ones so I'm sure you will be happy with yours. It is a wet hone, that in my opinion is best used with water or lather. I always prefer diluted lather as it prevents the water from beading up on the hone.Quote:
Originally Posted by LawsonStone
In regard to Glen's comment, I'll just point out that even the ubiquitous Swaty hones are described as being usable wet, dry, or with oil. I have never been able to find some, but Swaty marketed their own honing oil called something like Swatyoil.
the only "dry" hone I have ever seen is the carborundum I have which states "use dry" in the instructions,
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_20531.jpg
I'm compiling a list of the Carborundum hones and I have not seen that one before. What is the number on the side of the hone? I can't quite make it out. Is it 180?
I know the dimensions of the 180 are 4 3/4x 2 3/8. What are the dimensions of your hone?
Thanks!
Sometimes it looks like 180, other times it looks like 186 :confused: the measurements are 3 7/8 X 1 7/8.
Here are a couple pics of my reliance hone. It actually looks identical to my Dubl-Duck hone, right down to the label stuck on the side about which side to use first.
Thanks for the info. I'll add it to the questionable part of the list!Quote:
Originally Posted by currentman
duble duck is a dry hone too.