Thread: Honing With Soap

First and Foremost, I'm very new to honing straight razors. With that said, I've been very pleased with my efforts!

I decided to try a little experiment:

I used to make my living doing Auto Body repair. When we would wet sand we would add a little liquid dish soap to the water to help the sandpaper 'glide' over the paint.

Well if it worked on paint, why not on a hone? Today I needed to hone my Genco Grant (you could ride the edge to town and not get cut) Anyway, starting with my King 1200, I added a drop or two to the water on the surface when I went to lap it. I left the slurry and proceeded with my usual process.

I continued to use the soap drops on the Norton 4k,8k and the Naniwa 12k both with and without a slurry. I found that the blade seemed to hone easier, less friction on the lower stones and an even smoother stroke on the 8k and 12k.

The only drawback was if there were suds. Then you couldn't see the water being undercut.

The blade shaved excellent!

Has anyone else tried this?

Has been done for a long time.
Specially barber hones or DMT plates.
Naniwa's Norton,shapton will do the job without soap.
what soap does ?takes stones cutting power. You will end up making more strokes to get same effect without soap.
hope this helps.

When I bought my Swaty from a local barber he told me to use shaving lather when I went to touch up a razor. This was part of the basic for my experiment.

I believe that it was 'Mr. Wizard' who said: (Soap makes water wetter.)

I did double the repetitions on the higher stones, as I was sure that due to the increased viscosity of the water more work would be required.

With that said, the work on the lower stones went much easier!

I have experimented with this a bit on a couple of finishers.

On my Escher, I thought it worked very well. It retained the water on the hone a bit better and slowed down the stone a little bit.
On my La Dressante au bleu Coticule it basically did the same.
I also tried it on my Charnley Forest, before I opted for oil on it, and that was not a success. A charnley is slow enough as it is

I've used dish soap when I was sharpening knives on stones. It seemed to help keep the steel particles suspended, and I thought it kept the stones from getting "slicked". But in sharpening razors, and using little pressure, friction is your friend, not your enemy. I've done just fine with water alone, and plenty of it, on the Nortons, Naniwas, and a Shapton. Lapping takes care of them getting "slicked", although I haven't seen even the beginning of it. If all I might get from using dish soap is more strokes, then that just makes it more likely that one eventual bad stroke will ruin what your attempting to achieve.

As a former Meat Cutter, I'm very familiar with sharpening knives, however I have and still do use the Norton Tri-Stone in an oil bath for my knives (You can take anyone of them and 'Shave' the hair off your arm).

Knives and Razors are as different as Black and White! Oil and Water!!

My experiment was just that! AN EXPERIMENT!! Please don't read too much into it!

Just a warning. Shapton ceramic stones can be damaged by soap or detergents. Your Kings & Nortons will be fine but I'd double check any Naniwa instructions to be sure.

Thank You! I'll check it out!

I don't recall any instructions/warning coming with the Naniwa however, I will do some research!

Again, Thanks!
Roy
(This is what I Love about SRP! Members who are not only Polite, Friendly, but are willing to go the extra mile to be HELPFUL!)