Thread: Unusual materials as related to straight razors

Originally Posted by guitstik

... I told you my brain was defective.

We knew that...

A small update on the American Hone Company and Barber Hones

Merle Johnson, who bought the American Hone Co. already had a business or two - Perfecto Products / Success Barber Supply Company. The American Hone Co was in Olean, NY and Merle moved it to Moravia, Iowa, to where his other business was (still is):



In 1946 Perfecto was a subsidiary of the Success Barber Co and supplied heavy duty agricultural implements to farmers among other things. Robert Grubbs ran things and another employee was called Hiatt. Different spelling from Hyatt, but you never know... The Barber Supply part was headed by Mr. Johnson (he was also President of Perfecto), said to be a 'barber all his life' and his company was the only one in Appanoose County having a permit for manufacturing alcohol, which was used in their shampoos, tonics, hair products, etc. Of course, after its acquisition by Mr. Johnson (1950?) the American Hone Co became another subsidiary company.

With regard to the young lady, her name appears loads of times with different spellings according to different sources, eg 'Louise', Louis' and 'Lois' - I think I plumped for the wrong version and that it should have been Lois, like superman's girlfriend! Anyhow from when she graduated school (early 1950s?) to her death in 2004, she worked, sometimes part-time, making and supervising the hone making for the barber supply company. She closely guarded the knowledge for whatever reason. I thought she left an exercise book of recipes behind, but it was really a box of index cards. A lot of the company's trade came from making hones for companies like C'Mon, and each other company - they ran into the hundreds - would have individual requirements, so although the hones were basically of very few different types, the index cards probably helped 'tweak' each one for a particular company. Randy would know, as he now owns the index cards.

Talking of mis-spellings, in 1946 a newspaper recording Mr Johnson's involvement with Success and Perfecto called him Merrill instead of the 'Merle' I have read about elsewhere - personally I have always thought the latter was a girls name, so the former variant might well be correct...

Indeed, even the Hyatt surname may be incorrect - it seems more credible to me that the name was really Lois Hiatt. so perhaps she was related to that employee of Perfecto back in 1946... Indeed, consulting the electoral rolls reveals a Lois J Hiatt, born 1932, died in or around 28th December 2003. The dates are certainly good matches. Her birthplace - Moravia, Appanoose, Iowa, is good too.

There were also another couple of methods used. One, which was probably the preserve of the American Hone Co before Merle (or Merrill) bought it because the process is so old, is to use gum (eg gum arabic) as a binder. To this is added potassium dichromate (highly carcinogenic, though when I left college we used to mix it by the gallon to harden felt hats and harden the gum used in making silkscreen frames for printing). In the presence of sunlight or ultra violet light, the pot. di. changes the gum - it hardens it into a base which is no longer soluble with water. I would think that this made quite a fragile hone.

The other process was a cold process, in which the mix was poured into a mould and a hydraulic press was applied - presumably this removed most of the water, leaving a solid cake which could be turned out of the mold and left to harden, or to place in another mould with another pour on top to make a two sided hone - this would have undergone the press treatment too. This type of hone would - I think - not be as hard as the baked hone.

Regards,
Neil

I wasn't sure of my IQ so I went and did a test. Got the results back today and I have IQ of 180, and dyslexia. Plus because my score was so high they sent me some protective head gear and a bag of wooden blocks.

Originally Posted by AndrewJM

I wasn't sure of my IQ so I went and did a test. Got the results back today and I have IQ of 180, and dyslexia. Plus because my score was so high they sent me some protective head gear and a bag of wooden blocks.

Dyslexia, processing disorders and other sensitivities are pretty common amongst folks with high IQ scores. I could go on but it isn't really pertinent to the original question.

Neil, I find this to be fascinating and it amazes me how you come by all this information. The MDF cement and PVA should act as a strong enough binder without baking to be a suitable hone. The chemical reaction will produce heat by itself to "bake" the finished product. I plan on making one hone plain with no CrOx to determine the grit rating and then it is just a matter of adding CrOx in increments to see what effect that has in creating a suitable hone. As far as scales and brush handles, it would be a matter of making molds that can be filled and pressed.