Thread: Swaty 3-Line Arrived!

Hey all,

So not too long ago I won a Swaty on ebay, and made a thread here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/aucti...ine-swaty.html

There seemed to be some chips on the edge, but it was hard to tell by the pictures. It arrived today! There were chips on the edge, but with some lapping, and a LOT of lapping, I managed to get them all out! The only problem I ran into was a little piece of the stone broke off at the corner near the name while lapping...it's smoothed out and won't affect honing, but that's why it looks a little worn on that corner.

But it turned out nicely, and I have a nice Swaty 3-line now! Woo!

Here are the pics! The first two are of the front and the back prior to lapping, and the second two are after lapping.

I just had one question, I just remembered...I finished lapping it with 1500 grit sandpaper, and it's super smooth, but it's lost of the glossy finish it had when it came. Why is this?

Yep, like a marble tile. Nice.

Why the loss of shine? I suspect because the lapping removed all the old fine metal fragments, lather residue, and gunk. With frequent use, the old shine should return.

I've tried lathering it up a little, and the shaving lather seems to make it a little glossier, after I've wiped the lather off! I'm just having a good time lathering it up actually, something about using my shaving brush on a barber hone I find relaxing...

Dave, if you shoot ChrisL a PM he can probably tell you how to get the shine back on the Swaty. I know that he has a sequence he goes through in lapping them to get them smooth as silk.

The original surface of a Swaty is a solid brown color. A lot of the old used Swatys I've bought are nowhere near flat so I have lapped most of them to have a flat surface. Since the Swaty instructions tell you to use an emory if needed to restore the surface, they certainly did not consider the original surface to be sacrosanct. Unfortunately, once you lap it, the remaining surface will be lighter in color and will be speckled with dark spots. Under the microscope, I have not seen a discernable difference in the appearance of the grits of the lapped and unlapped surfaces but, in my opinion, the surface of the lapped Swaty will never look the same as an unlapped Swaty.

As far as I can tell, even though the lapped Swaty no longer has the solid dark chocolate brown color, its function as an amazing hone remains.

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

There were chips on the edge, but with some lapping, and a LOT of lapping, I managed to get them all out! The only problem I ran into was a little piece of the stone broke off at the corner near the name while lapping...it's smoothed out and won't affect honing, but that's why it looks a little worn on that corner.

But it turned out nicely, and I have a nice Swaty 3-line now! Woo!

Here are the pics! The first two are of the front and the back prior to lapping, and the second two are after lapping.

I just looked at your pics again and realized the chips appear to be gone! Did you actually lap it down to the level of the bottom of the chips? I've had a few Swatys where lapping started to cut into the imprint but yours is intact. I know the depth of the imprint can vary but if you actually lapped it that far, your arms must still be aching! So, how did you get rid of those chips? Photoshop, brown spackle, or extreme lapping?

Swatys are great finishers.

Currently, I've been experimenting with a 325 finish on the "bottom" side and a 1200 finish on the logo side of a 3-line. I can feel a bit of difference in feedback. I'm not sure yet about any difference in sharpness level, needs more testing.

Congratulations, I think you'll like your new hone a lot.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I just looked at your pics again and realized the chips appear to be gone! Did you actually lap it down to the level of the bottom of the chips? I've had a few Swatys where lapping started to cut into the imprint but yours is intact. I know the depth of the imprint can vary but if you actually lapped it that far, your arms must still be aching! So, how did you get rid of those chips? Photoshop, brown spackle, or extreme lapping?

Extreme lapping!!! I have a little norton diamond plate, 325 grit, and I gave the Swaty a good lapping for a couple of hours. It seriously took 2-3 hours of hard work, had to take some breaks. It's amazing how hard those barber hones are, I had no idea since this is my first one.

Wow! I've lapped enough hones to know that was a heck of a lot of work. I'm willing to bet that if you ever need to do that again, you will seriously consider buying the extra coarse DMT. I've come to the conclusion that it's the only DMT worth using for lapping a barber hone.

You will definitely enjoy using your Swaty, even more so after spending all that quality time bonding with it!