Carborundum 118s Barber Hone
The Carborundum 118s seems to be coarser than the #101-103 hones. Out of the box, I’d rate this significantly lower in ‘grit’ – around 4-6k JIS.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t a useful hone though. My first attempts to use this during shaving failed miserably – but when I use it as a set-up stone for a finer barber hone it’s extremely useful.
This stone was sold as ‘unfilled’, meaning that the customer might want to ‘fill’ the stone with a lubricant to tame the stone’s aggressive nature. Impregnating the stone with either substance would slow down the cutting and allow the user to get a keener and smoother edge.
The instructions with Carborundum hones mention this approach as a means to reduce cutting strength and that could very well be the trick to tame this little beast. Another technique would be to impregnate the stone with soap by layering on very hot lather onto the stone and letting it soak in. After several treatments, the stone would be ‘loaded’ or ‘filled’ and whenever hot water was put onto the stone, the soap would provide a slick cushioned surface to hone on.
Approx. Dimensions: 4.0 x 2.0 x .75 / 102 x 50 x 19 mm
Weight: 5.9 oz / 166 g
If you have any questions,info or feedback about this hone, shoot me an email here.
