Barber hone

[gpjoe]

Picked up a Frantz barber hone at the antique store today for 8 bucks. It has a few edge chips, but otherwise pretty good.

I noticed that the back side is very smooth to the touch but the face of the marked side (which i assume is customarily the "use" side) is a bit rough.

So, two questions:

Is this stone worth using to maintain an edge (minor touchup of a good bevel), or as a finishing stone?

If so, what is the best way to smooth and flatten the stone?

I have a Norton flattening stone, some higher grit film and some wet/dry paper. I could use the film or sandpaper on glass or granite, if that is good option.

I do not have a diamond plate.

 

[kcb5150]

No barber hone is a finishing stone, they are touch up stones. They need a bit more stropping than usual typically once you come off the stone. As far as lapping a barber hone, more is more. Lap it as finely as you can. I would just go with sheets on granite and move through the grits. Others may disagree on the final point but I don't think any barber hones shuld be allowed to become overly soaked with water during lapping as I have found binders start to act mighty strange during lap once they hit a saturation point. As far as your specific swaty goes nobody will know till you set it up and try it. They are so variable it's crazy. Some can be really credible stones to shave from and others are well and truly past it.

 

[Gamma]

Best case scenario - it would only maintain an edge equal to what it could do on it's own.
It would not restore a super fine Jnat edge to its original status.
They are not all that fine but, in good conditions, they can bring back an edge that is failing.


These hones were designed to make a tugging edge cut a little better and to keep that going for a while.
The abrasive in them is not all that fine.

One of the better b-hones made used an abrasive that was a little less fine than what is used in an 8k JIS stone today.
That b-hone was much better than a Swaty so far as ultimate sharpness goes.

None of the Swaty hones I've had were 'remarkable', and I've had a lot of them.
I have used them and they work to a degree, but a modern 12k synth is faster and more capable. I think someone with a less difficult beard might consider them to be 'better' than I do.
I have read posts where some have said their Swaty hone was exceptional, but they are far and few between. I have not been able to try one of those magic Swatys though.

To refurb - lap it flat and take out the chips. If you don't take out the chips the interior of the chip might exacerbate the binder's demise. If you get it flat, and chamfer out all the chips, and then polish lap it so the surface is nearly glass like smooth, you have a fighting chance of using it successfully for a while. I usually treat them with mineral oil when lapping and afterwards. I buff the lightly oiled surface with something like denim.. Eliminating the dry crusty exterior, and keeping it from returning, helps get the most out of them. I've done a couple dozen of them this way and it works well. They're a lot of fun to restore and mess around with but the majority of people will find them to not compare favorably to other touch up options.

 

[SliceOfLife]

When I started out... Swaty and a few others were recommended as a cheap alternative to things like coticules, Thuringians and Naniwa 12ks... So I learned razor honing finishing on one.

They aren't that good at it... for the most part... almost no Barber synths are. Arguably many of the various Frictionites are ok...ish... but still pretty inferior to natural finishers, and I definitely prefer a modern synth over one also.

The thin slate-backed fake coticule barber hones, Panama Hones, and maybe a couple other types (though none spring to mind) are the only "barber synths" I've found that I consider decent and consistent enough to recommend as a finishing hone option.

Swaty are probably the most inconsistent I've found... now they were made in several places over several decades... so there's a good reason for that... but I could never recommend one as a consequence... that said even the VERY best ones I've owned were still a decently large step down from a modern synth... and that's what they were competing with... they were nothing like a natural stone... and the ones that even got to where they were useful (in my opinion) represented less than 10% of the ones I tried.

Nice stones for shaving displays/shadowboxes/etc... maybe reasonable for finishing things OTHER than razors in a pinch... but I can't recommend them for shaving off of.

 

[marv]

Panama Barber Hone and Oak Leaf Barber Hone were good stones. They weren't perfect. Other than these two, I haven't used any useful barber hone.