The Wall Of Shame

One more worthless story while I'm at it. I once saw a bone colored hard ark stone (my favorite - where's the hearts on this site so I can show how much I love them?). It was on ebay, and the back of it looked hand cut. There's no particular value in old arkansas stones above and beyond new ones, though, unless they have a vintage pike level.

The stone was dirty, and the seller who listed it listed it for $200. I thought that was pretty rude (yeah, I know, who am I to judge?). It's about 8 inches long, a little less than 2 inches wide - typical vintage bench stone. So I did what I often do with places that have BO sales. I sent them an offer for $100 including shipping figuring they would get in a huff and we'd go our separate ways. It took less than 10 minutes to get a response back that they accepted my offer, they sent me my stone and I friggin love it!!

It's the bone stone in this video. I'm glad I made the offer. Someone else made me a box for it as a return for a favor, it's a nice little unit now, but I don't use it for razors (it would work fine for that if I lapped the nicks out of the corners, though).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G85B6iVCyMo

If that guy has BO options on his site, and he does have nice stones that someone wants, never hurts to send offers for what you think the value is.

Yeah I really want a bone stone but can't bring myself to pony up the bucks some people are asking for. I am a cheap bastard after all and SWMBO monitors my razor purchases and lectures me on them if I spend to much. Oh well I am sure I will get lucky one day, for now my other arkies will have to do, they do amazing by the way and I wish there was a heart icon too for them. My favorite arkie doesn't leave the coffee table and I tell my wife never to touch it for fear she might drop it. Not that she is clumsy but I wouldn't want to resent her if she broke it haha. J/K of course.

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Originally Posted by cosperryan

Yeah I really want a bone stone but can't bring myself to pony up the bucks some people are asking for. I am a cheap bastard after all and SWMBO monitors my razor purchases and lectures me on them if I spend to much. Oh well I am sure I will get lucky one day, for now my other arkies will have to do, they do amazing by the way and I wish there was a heart icon too for them. My favorite arkie doesn't leave the coffee table and I tell my wife never to touch it for fear she might drop it. Not that she is clumsy but I wouldn't want to resent her if she broke it haha. J/K of course.

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It is, of course, purely cosmetic (the bone color). I favor the stone in this video a lot, it's a strong cutter. I had another one that had fabulous color and was probably middle of the pack in all of the translucent or hard black stones I've ever had (which probably equates to about 15 to 20).

I wouldn't pay extra for it, but if you chance upon one for a hundred bucks for a 2x8, then by all means. They're definitely nice to look at while you're honing.

Well the guy with the coti for 225 responded back to me again, three different times and each on being different but I won't copy and paste them here for I have good manners sometimes. I responded to him just asking him to be honest with me. If you want to know his response you may PM me if you wish.

WE can imagine what they might be. What he doesn't realize is that he's costing himself potential sales if he does something too ridiculous. He might have 10 things, and I might be able to get a whif of two of them for a couple of bucks less than he's asking, but when I see a $225 blue, then I'm not going to look at the rest of the things - unless I want to lampoon them.

Most other folks will get turned off and go on to a different item.

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Originally Posted by cosperryan

Well the guy with the coti for 225 responded back to me again, three different times and each on being different but I won't copy and paste them here for I have good manners sometimes. I responded to him just asking him to be honest with me. If you want to know his response you may PM me if you wish.

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It looks like he changed the item description to explain the steep price.

It's funny that he talks about having to get the stones directly from ardennes. That's kind of dumb. Who else is mining belgian blue stone and selling it as hones right now?

I just ordered a blue from open razor for $65 plus $20 shipping. The measurements are about the same as the picture of that expensive one would be. I think ardennes is probably not in the business of selling inexpensive stones themselves and they nailed him if that's what he actually paid. He probably paid VAT, too.

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Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

It looks like he changed the item description to explain the steep price.

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I see that. He says a he's only charging a few more dollars, more like a few hundred more dollars. Atleast I pretty much killed his possible sales. Hopefully no new guys will get duped on this one.

Our seller is back. This time with what looks like an MST thuri or some other non-escher stone.

Vintage Black German Natural Whetstone for Straight Razors | eBay

What do you think it might be? For a stone supposedly from the 1920s, it has remarkably few marks and little use on it. Putting on my tinfoil hat, I'm assuming that the suggestion that it's a "one stone" hone means it's not particularly fine.

(strange that he says you can see the "garnets" in a german stone. Personally, I've seen a bit of shiny particles in the MST hones, but it's not garnets, and it doesn't foretell particularly good things).

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Originally Posted by DaveW

Our seller is back. This time with what looks like an MST thuri or some other non-escher stone.

Vintage Black German Natural Whetstone for Straight Razors | eBay

What do you think it might be? For a stone supposedly from the 1920s, it has remarkably few marks and little use on it. Putting on my tinfoil hat, I'm assuming that the suggestion that it's a "one stone" hone means it's not particularly fine.

(strange that he says you can see the "garnets" in a german stone. Personally, I've seen a bit of shiny particles in the MST hones, but it's not garnets, and it doesn't foretell particularly good things).

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Well he took down the "Belgian Blue Coticule". He must have taken all the garnets out of the "BBC" and put them in the escher. He told me the same thing about the garnets in the "BBC"

Buyers Beware.