I’m not a honemeister nor do I play one on the internet. However, I offer the following for your consideration:
The following details the novel use of a common hand lotion as lubricant for a Swaty barber hone to improve an already usable straight razor edge.
I use a Swaty barber hone for keeping my sharp razors sharp. Used within this limitation, it has served me well. I have used the Swaty dry, with water, and with shaving lather each to good but equal effect.
More as an excuse to play with razors than anything else, I pulled out my Swaty and coated the honing surface with some Nivea hand lotion the wife keeps in the bathroom. I made the usual 3-4 X-pattern passes with a JA Henckel’s 5/8 Friodur.
Expecting the usual post-Swaty improvement, I found the edge performed the hanging hair and standing hair test much more vigorously than previous work with a dry or lathered hone. But the proof is in the shave.
The test shave was a single N-S pass shave. The result was much closer than I am used to getting with a single pass.
Over the next week, I tried the hand lotion Swaty combo on my remaining razors and found this extra degree of improvement in 4 out of my 5 razors (including the Henckel’s.) No adverse events occurred.
I offer no explanatory mechanism for this incremental improvement. I encourage others to experiment with these methods.
Methods:
Coat the honing surface of barber hone with a thin layer of Nivea hand lotion. Coating should be translucent not opaque.
Perform 3-4 X-Pattern passes with minimal pressure with the heel leading. The lotion will appear to suck the blade to the hone. Use just enough pressure to guide the blade through the X-pattern. Build up of lotion on the upside of the blade will indicate complete or incomplete edge contact with the hone. There is no need to wipe the lotion from the blade before rolling and reversing direction.
When 3-4 passes have been completed, rinse hone and razor with water and dry.
Assess edge and shave.
I remain &C,
LG Roy
