Barbers Hones Reviews and comparisons.

[SliceOfLife]

Cool thread How did you use the Peek In... dry, both sides?

Yeah, Dry both sides. Amazing stone. Once I'm done with a few stones I need to test, it's due for another shave. Don't think I've touched it since this test.


Rusen, that's awesome. I've not found an unmarked hone that was anything special yet, but I've stopped reviewing them. Really no point since they're basically unidentifiable, even if I found one that was amazing.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Pike Razor Hone: aka Pike Swaty


Didn't expect much, but actually surprised me. Didn't feel particularly sharp but gave a pretty decent shave. 8/10 for comfort and maybe 6/10 for closeness. Definitely better than the other American Swaty's I've encountered. I would say it's a bare minimum for acceptable closeness, but substantially more comfortable than the average barber synthetic. Neat little hone but nothing to write home about.

Got a couple unusual 2line swaty's and an Ahconite 2 sided to test later this week.

 

[Gamma]

Does it say Pike Swaty on it? There are Pike baber hones that just say 'Pike'.
I find them to be, at the very least, as good as the Austrian Swatys. They're softer, so I prefer them actually.
I've also had a few of them that had dried out badly and never came 'back' to working condition.
I just picked up another one recently, still have to lap it though.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Yeah it says "Pike Swaty". It is like a Swaty but softer. I expected it to be coarse junk like the SRD american swaty's, but it's ok.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Ahconite 2 sided razor hone.

Very interesting stone. I would say FOR ITS PURPOSE probably the best barber hone I've encountered. That said, the shave off it was just acceptable.

To go into details. This stone shaves similarly to the Craftsman. About a 7 for comfort and 7.5 or so for closeness. Nothing to write home about.

What is special, is the first side is coarse. VERY coarse. And VERY fast. You could remove chips from razors on the coarse side of this hone with ease. It's faster than some modern 1k's. This makes it a true one-hone solution for razors. It's superior in that capacity to the Norton 1/4/8k set. The shave is far superior to the Norton 8k and it takes less time to hone on. The only review I can find of this hone says to do only a few passes on the fine side. That is questionable advice, even coming off an 8k (4k JIS), 15-30 is more reasonable for the razor I tested. Coming off the coarse side of this hone, 30 is a good starting point, and 50+ is probably a good idea. The stone IS very aggressive, but the coarse side is VERY coarse. The benefit of this is as I mention, you can hone up a ebay special to shave ready in a matter of minutes... an amazing accomplishment for a barbers hone. The drawback is the resulting edge doesn't compare to things like the Frictionite, the Synthetic coti, or the Peek-in. Despite the aggressive nature of the coarse side, it does leave the edge in good enough shape it can be finished easily by the fine side in 1-2 minutes.

The texture of the coarse side reminds me of the Carbo razor hone (118S) but it's significantly faster than it. Texture of the fine side reminds me of the fine side of the Craftsman.

Razors off this stone HHT extremely well, feel a bit dull and a bit scratchy during the shave, but leave an acceptable shave and little post shave irritation. I'd put the quality of the shave somewhere between a 6k JIS and 8K JIS finish, with a slight edge in comfort.


The makeup of the stone is somewhat similar to the craftsman, though there are evident differences (most notably on the coarse side). And while it's softer than your average barber hone, it's quite a bit harder than that craftsman.

 

[Gamma]

Yeah it says "Pike Swaty". It is like a Swaty but softer. I expected it to be coarse junk like the SRD american swaty's, but it's ok.

Oddly - I have a Pike Swaty that's also stamped SRD on the side, along with something like 'Old Swaty Hone' or something along those lines. Seems identical to the typical Pike Swaty hones too. I really like them, partially - I think - because of their softness.

 

[SliceOfLife]

By SRD american swaty's I mean the ones stamped "Three Line"

 

[Gamma]

Ahh - those are another thing.... not up to snuff IMO.

 

[EL Alamein]

Love this thread.

Chris

 

[SliceOfLife]

Two sided hone. Suspected "Winner" Hone.

I've had a couple of these in the past, but they were too broken down/decayed to be worthwhile. This one felt to be in good shape so I gave it a try.

Shave ease: 8.25/10 Not effortless, but doesn't feel like it's struggling either.
Post shave comfort: 7.5/10 Definitely not top notch, but well above average for barbers hones.
Closeness: 8.5/10 Very close shave. Acceptable. Again, well above avg for barbers hones.

I'd say it's perhaps a bit nicer than the Dubl Duck. A step down from the Frictionite, certainly. Shave comfort and closeness a noticeable step down from my 11k JIS.

I don't have an hr's rating yet, but from the feel, it'll last 23-25 hrs. I'll repost a correction if that turns out to be inaccurate.

 

[SliceOfLife]

No new review, but a potential ID on the hone in this review.

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...Reviews-and-comparisons?p=6978625#post6978625

A hone appearing to be the same, with these ridges (used for mounting) in a base and a box is on eBay now. It's an "Athenite" by American Hone Co. Not a definite ID, but they certainly look the same.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Well... because I love you all, I spent several hundred dollars purchasing a Norton Razor Hone to review and then sold it for a couple hundred dollars more. So here it is in all its glory:


THE
NORTON RAZOR HONE
REVIEW!!!!!!!


I'll start with some obvious stuff. The pictures below are in order: Norton Slurry. Norton Edge. Escher Edge. Sigma Power 13k Edge.

Ease: 9
Comfort: 8.5
Duration: 22hrs


Long story short. It shaves alright. Always kind of feels "wrong", feels like a wire edge that never breaks off. Tried this on a few different razors a few different times. No difference, it's just how the hone leaves an edge... overly thin behind the apex. Some stones do this... usually not synths, but they exist. This is one of them. You can feel the edge flexing as it cuts if you have thick hair. This is an unsettling feeling for me.

That said, It still cuts like a sharp edge. No tugging. No struggling. No significant irritation during the shave.

Is it the same as the craftsman? No. Sorry to the guys hoping to snag a $700 hone for $20. They are very similar in feel and appearance, but the Norton is substantially finer than the Craftsman.

The hone lost comfort points due to unexpectedly high amounts of post-shave irritation. I expect the edge flex was countering proper angle management and pulling the edge into the surface of the skin, removing more skin cells than a similarly sharp edge without this trait would.

Where the hone was a real let down was in closeness. 22hrs is not an acceptable shave duration for a stone supposed to improve on an Escher and 15k shapton edge. Either of those give shave durations of 30hr+, that's a huge gap. They create MUCH sharper razors than this hone can. If I'm not mistaken, the comparisons rating it as finer than those stones were made visually at 100x. My images will let you compare for yourselves at ~400x on a typical desktop monitor.

Comparing the Norton's fine side to other barber synthetics, I would say it ranks above most, but behind a very good example of a Swaty, a Frictionite 00, The Peek-in, the Synthetic Coticule, and possibly a few others. Given its price, this is quite damning for what would otherwise be a fairly positive review.

The final testing I did was using the hone as a 1-2 solution. The coarse side followed by the fine side. This was where the Frictionite 00 and Peek-in 2-sided barber hones shined. Here the Norton simply failed. The Norton razor hone's fine side is incapable of finishing a razor in a reasonable number of strokes coming off its own coarse side. These stones typically recommend anywhere from three to twelve to a handful, or similar values. I tested the Norton up to fifty strokes; at which point the edge was still what I would consider "not shave ready".

That said, this hone is no doubt excellent for Lumberjacks. As a conclusion, these are rare and getting rarer. Leave them for the lumberjacks and save yourselves a ton of money.

 

[HunterBlades]

Two sided hone. Suspected "Winner" Hone.

I've had a couple of these in the past, but they were too broken down/decayed to be worthwhile. This one felt to be in good shape so I gave it a try.

Shave ease: 8.25/10 Not effortless, but doesn't feel like it's struggling either.
Post shave comfort: 7.5/10 Definitely not top notch, but well above average for barbers hones.
Closeness: 8.5/10 Very close shave. Acceptable. Again, well above avg for barbers hones.

I'd say it's perhaps a bit nicer than the Dubl Duck. A step down from the Frictionite, certainly. Shave comfort and closeness a noticeable step down from my 11k JIS.

I don't have an hr's rating yet, but from the feel, it'll last 23-25 hrs. I'll repost a correction if that turns out to be inaccurate.

I have one of these and really like it for a barber hone. I think I prefer the red side. I borrowed one from Alex and liked it enough to snag one on the bay. Nice feel and feedback when honing on it too.

 

[David]

Cool review. I've always been suspicious of the claims towards the Norton razor hone. Did you have to lap it or was it good as is? Just curious to how hard they are?

 

[SliceOfLife]

Not this one. It was all but nos. I ran it over a DMT just to compare to a craftsman, and it was very close. Moderately hard fine and very soft coarse.

 

[SliceOfLife]

So these appeared on eBay recently, and I grabbed one to try. Making an exception to my rule of selling any hone I might sell before reviewing it, since I can't very well try and drive the price up on a hone that a guy's selling hundreds of for $5 each with a positive review.


Ok. Gonna be a quick review. THIS IS USING THE HONE WET! See below for updated "DRY" review. The hone is supposed to be used dry.

It cuts steel.
It does it pretty fast.
It's ridiculously soft. Like softer than the Aloxite #79, maybe as soft as the Victory. I chamfered it in seconds.
It's pretty cheaply made. Very light and lots of air pockets in the mix. Reminds a bit of that French Synthetic in that way.
It's coarse. Between 1k and 8k for sure. I'd guess falling in the roughly 2-3k range (on Norton/Mesh scale). It did passably WTG, but could not manage ATG. The razor just got dead stopped by my beard. Minor irritation, but obviously if I'd forced a ATG pass, would have been serious irritation.


As for fast, it wiped out 1k scratches in 10 passes. 300grit scratches in 15-20. An 8" long 8k wiped out its scratches in 30 passes.

It feels nice under the razor, has good feedback. You can tell it's working, and the feel is superior to the carborundum 118s, which I remember being around the same grit as this hone. At its price, it could work as a bare-bones cheapo bevel setter. I may test it for that in the future. It does autoslurry and it probably would wear out quite quickly, but hey, it's $5. If a King 1k is too much money for you, it could be worth a try. It's definitely not suitable to finish a razor, however. Honestly, probably the best use for this would be as to raise a slurry on a hard base stone for low grit work (A synthetic Botan nagura if you will). Basically my point is this stone could be useful to some, but not to finish razors.

It SMELLS. Holy hell. Smells like you set off an entire crate of those Snake "fireworks" when you're lapping or using it. Enough to make someone sensitive to that smell nauseous.

No ratings for the shave because it's not suitable for shaving off of.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Dry review coming once I shave. Here's the Dry edge image:

 

[SliceOfLife]

Dry edge honing off 8k:

Four strokes (hey that's what it's called). As you can see, it's still my 8k edge, with a few added scratches (all angled scratches are from this hone)
25
50

As you can see, around 50 the edge is getting back to how this hone finishes. Possibly in the 25-50 realm, there's good shaving to be had. I don't play those balancing acts with hones. If you're down for that, with the proper amount of clogging and extremely limited strokes, the sidewalk is a finishing hone. I may try a shave with 30 strokes off the 8k just to see if it works there, but I wouldn't recommend this hone based on performance under those circumstances. Same reason I don't like any of the slates that only allow X number of strokes before the edge dissolves.

Used dry ATG was still not possible. Edge does look better though.

 

[jimmy538]

Shave ease: 6/10
After-shave feel: 6/10
Hours of shave: 21
Above avg for a swaty. The edge was very sharp, but didn't hold up very well to the shave, had a wave to it after. New razor (No stamps, rescaled in vintage scales, may be a recent cheap make). Going to have to give this stone another try with a different razor later and see if the edge holds up better.

I believe this is the same one I have. I lapped it to 2000 grit & touched up a razor finishing on lather. I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Not the best edge and a little AS burn, but would use again for quick touch ups.

 

[jimmy538]

The first shave with this hone was ok, not great but better than I was expecting from a barber's hone. I gave up on the second pass of the second shave because the edge went to junk. I'm not sure if it was me or the hone. I haven't tried using it again yet.