Swaty - Where does it fit in my routine?

[temjeito]

Hi all,

I recently acquired a Franz Swaty barber's hone, and I'm wondering where it fits in with all the other "touch-up" stuff I have acquired.

First, here's what I have available for touching up an edge:

leather hanging strop
untreated felt hanging strop
untreated linen hanging strop
felt bench strop w/ .25u diamond spray
balsa strop with CrOx on one side and FeOx on the other
la grise coticule
Swaty barber's hone

Second, here's how I currently use the above:

Before each shave, I usually give the edge 10-20 passes on the felt w/ diamond spray, and 40 passes on leather.
After each shave, I usually give the edge 5-10 passes on the hanging felt or linen and 40 passes on leather.
If the edge is starting to feel rough or dull, I will do 20-40 passes on each side of the balsa strop, then 10 passes on linen and 40 on leather.
If the balsa doesn't bring the edge back where I want it, I go back to the coticule.

So, I really have two questions:

1) how would you change my current routine? and
2) how would you incorporate the Swaty?

If my understanding is correct, to order the above from finest to coarsest, it would be:

leather
felt
linen
FeOx Balsa
Diamond-sprayed Felt
CrOx Balsa
Swaty
coticule

Is that right? Sorry for the long post, but I find all of this very confusing. I'm guessing there's a good dollop of YMMV going on here, but it would be helpful to hear what you guys do.

-M.

 

[Gamma]

The Swaty is for touching up during mid-shave.

It won't need any help from any other component.
Well - except leather, and I mean a lot of leather - afterwards.
4-8 passes on the finer side should do it.

 

[temjeito]

The Swaty is for touching up during mid-shave.

It won't need any help from any other component.
Well - except leather, and I mean a lot of leather - afterwards.
4-8 passes on the finer side should do it.

Thanks! So, if I start shaving, and it starts to tug or feel rough or dull after the first pass, I do a few edge-leading x-strokes on the Swaty (what, 5 passes? 10?), then keep shaving? Or is it shave-Swaty-leather-shave? What's "a lot of leather" -- 40 passes?

 

[Gamma]

IME - 4-8 passes. You may like more, less than 4 would be unusual but anything is possible.

figure 60+ passes on leather to smooth it out.

Shave, Tugging, Swaty, Leather, Shave

 

[temjeito]

IME - 4-8 passes. You may like more, less than 4 would be unusual but anything is possible.

figure 60+ passes on leather to smooth it out.

Shave, Tugging, Swaty, Leather, Shave

Awesome, thanks!

 

[Gamma]

Try water, or lather, on the Swaty.
you can use it dry, but using something that adds slickness will help you get a keener edge.
Don't know what yours looks like, but often - these old b-hones are often dried out and clogged.
Lapping them is a pita - but a short run on a DMT to clear the top of debris, followed by some w/d action to remove the scratchs can help.
I go up to 1k on the top, 600x on the bottom. That'll give you two different surfaces to work with.

I usually hit them with mineral oil 1x after lapping and drying out afterwards. Then - I let them sit for a while so it soaks in, and then buff out with a rolled up cloth.
Someplace on the 'net there's a thread about conditioning them, etc.

 

[temjeito]

Thanks so much. My understanding is the hone has been lapped fairly recently (to get rid of some gouges), and it doesn't look dried out:

 

[Gamma]

That's a nice 2 line Swaty, looks good.
You can probably polish the top a bit more. Try it out, see how it goes.

 

[BillC]

I had a piece of 12 micron lapping film I was about to toss and an old barbers hone that was a little rough. Put the film on a lapping stone like w/d and it made quick work of lapping the barber hone - left a nice surface too. But the film definitely needed the trash can after