Thread: Crystal Hone... This is diffeent...

Vintage Pink Glass Crystal Stropper Razor Hone Strop Sharpener | eBay

I've seen half-pipe style strops/sharpeners before but never like this... Would it even work without grit of some sort? Or, do you have to have film or a spray to put on there first?

Cool looking item...

Shawn
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I think they used them on DE-blades back when they weren't coated in teflon and god knows what.

Yea, it looks like an English made one I have that is pre war and slightly radio active, I think I read somewhere. They were for DR blades.

Bob

A bit of history on crystal hones:

In the 16th century Hernan Cortez reaches the South American coast. There he finds a mysterious crystal hone, believed to be one of only a few in existence. He then dies mysteriously.

Cut to 20th century US, where Professor Henry Jones and his curiously effeminate newly-discovered son posture through some crudely drawn US 50s stereotypes and then head for Peru, discover the crystal hone in the grave of a conquistador, outwit some post WWII Nazis, and unwittingly unleash an alien space ship that has lain dormant for millennia.

Turns out the crystal hone belonged to one of these aliens, and they were reticent to take off for an intergalactic flight without the ability to hone their razors along the way. So they preferred to sit for thousands of years under the earth in South America waiting for some random to come along and bring the hone back. I mean, who wouldn't do that, right?

Anyway, these crystal hones are quite rare but a whole lot of trouble, as you can see from the above history. Caveat emptor.

James.

My moonshining great uncle couldn't afford a fancy one like that and used the inside of a drinking glass with toothpaste. Good collectable though!
~Richard

I have heard on this forum of guys going through WWII with 1 blade and a glass cup used for keeping it sharp.. Also, I learned to finish hone using a bottle for straights.... Saying that, I quit using the bottle when I got some proper stones, and the stones work better... But, I could see that back in the day if all you had was a rough stone and a bottle... then it would be better than nothing... In fact I was so used to using the bottle, that when I got some Shapton's, I used the glass side instead of the stone side.... Yea, I am a moron..

These are the type I was talking about PAIR 1930s ART DECO LILLICRAP'S HONES URANIUM GLASS STROP RAZOR KNIFE SHARPENER | eBay and are similar but with a small amount of uranium in the glass.

Bob

The lillicraps were the main DE blade hones. They are famous for them. I don't think the uranium glass has any Uranium in it. I think they called it that because of the color.

Of course I could be wrong. If you get them let us know if they make you glow in the dark.

Originally Posted by Geezer

My moonshining great uncle couldn't afford a fancy one like that and used the inside of a drinking glass with toothpaste. Good collectable though!
~Richard

Just enough grit in that toothpaste & the shape of the glass , was probably just enough to refresh an edge on a DE blade for a while.

I have one similar,