What is a Barber's hone?

[msouthern]

Nothing more than that... Just a question: What is a Barber's Hone?

MS

[Legion]

A barbers hone is the name given to the small hand held hones, usually synthetic, Which are used to touch up an edge, rather than do a complete honing job. They are usually fast cutting and fairly fine. The vintage ones are usually some sort of cutting medium suspended in a fired clay.

[LarryAndro]

The next question is what is the grit rating for barbers hones, and since they aren't ever labeled you have to guess. The rule of thumb I've heard often is that they average around 8K.

You can hone on a barbers hone, then immediately strop on leather and shave (provided you strop sufficiently.) I think, though, it was quite common to strop on linen or leather or some other surface to which some abrasive like chromium oxide had been added, and then go to untreated (with abrasives) leather. That is certainly what I would recommend.

[Drybonz]

This one has its boots with the fur and it's going down to the club.

[Luc]

There's a good article in Wiki: http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/index.php/Barber_hones

[Munxcub]

The next question is what is the grit rating for barbers hones, and since they aren't ever labeled you have to guess. The rule of thumb I've heard often is that they average around 8K.

You can hone on a barbers hone, then immediately strop on leather and shave (provided you strop sufficiently.) I think, though, it was quite common to strop on linen or leather or some other surface to which some abrasive like chromium oxide had been added, and then go to untreated (with abrasives) leather. That is certainly what I would recommend.

I went from my AMHO barbers hone directly to linen/leather and it shaved fine. Wasn't quite as good as it would have been had I gone to CrOx after, but it passed HHT and shaved just fine.

Mind you it wasn't until I got good at honing in general (on a coti specifically) that I was able to get good results from this barber's hone.

[Legion]

This one has its boots with the fur and it's going down to the club.

That's my kangaroo fur barber hone Ugg boot.