Thread: Barber hone experiment

Originally Posted by Theseus

I haven't tried a c12k slurry stone yet. May have to try it soon. I've used the coti, a King, a bbw and a thuri slurry stone on my Swaty. All worked well but the coti worked especially well.

Cool. I will have to try that. I have used my naguras on my C12K with great results.

Well i rehoned the razor again. Using lather. This time i did not go all the way to the course hone"Axolite". I started with the Perfection circles 3 passes up and down the hone folowed by 20x strokes. I did this on the from and back of the hone. I repeated this on the Axolite finer hone. Same with the Swaty. 10 passes on Crox. Much better than the last test. Very sharp smooth shave. Im really impressed with the outcome. No irritation.

Barber's hones are wonderful. I really don't know why more of us here don't use them as our touch up hones. I guess they're just so simple to use and only take 5 strokes to touch up a razor that they aren't as mysterious or pleasurable to use like Coticules, Jnats and Eschers are...

all i own is a barbers hone and for touch ups i cant see me ever gettign anything else there as simple as can be and they dont cost alot to get one.

I'm confused, you honed a razor from bevel to SR with a Barbers hone? I thought BH's were only for touch ups of an already sharp razor?? *confused*

Originally Posted by mcgyver74

I'm confused, you honed a razor from bevel to SR with a Barbers hone? I thought BH's were only for touch ups of an already sharp razor?? *confused*

He put a hell of a lot of work into that, if thats what he did.

Originally Posted by mcgyver74

I'm confused, you honed a razor from bevel to SR with a Barbers hone? I thought BH's were only for touch ups of an already sharp razor?? *confused*

Barber hones are designed for quick touch ups. That being said, with a little tenacity, you can do quite a bit with them. I've honed on them using different slurry stones. I also sat down one day with a completely dull razor and my Pike Swaty and dry honed while watching a baseball game. By around the eighth inning it was shaving sharp.

Originally Posted by mcgyver74

I'm confused, you honed a razor from bevel to SR with a Barbers hone? I thought BH's were only for touch ups of an already sharp razor?? *confused*

My intent was to do that. Sadly i picked a razor that had an edge in really tough shape. I will pick a better one next time. The first picture, The axolite on the end is course enough to set a bevel. I have found a variety of grits in Barber hones. Also the lower grit ones were lapped on 600 grit on the front and 1k on the back. I found that this really did help in honing. Next time i will use oil instead of lather.

Originally Posted by mcgyver74

I'm confused, you honed a razor from bevel to SR with a Barbers hone? I thought BH's were only for touch ups of an already sharp razor?? *confused*

Yes touch ups but note that the classic solution is five hone strokes and no more.

Depending on the barber hone they can prove to be very smooth and fine or
mostly smooth and fine. One of the reasons to stop at five is to avoid building
up a nasty burr. The "Axolite" type of barber hones can be very different from
the brown hard fired clay hones.

Yes, they are underused and under appreciated. Combined with modern
pasted strops (1 micron and sub micron sprays) a lot of good shaves
are possible.