Thread: Natural Combo Stone?

The stone is a barber hone embossed Zenith Razor Hone. No natural hones of any kind are embossed, the stamping step would ruin the stone. This is a barber's hone, enjoy it, it will probably be a nice hone to use.

I thought he meant the other hone in the lot!

Rich, he's talking about the other hone.

Chris L

And, I also do not think it's a natural Belgian. I think it's a combo barber hone. Then again, the box does have a word at the top that starts with "B" and I have seen vintage Belgian boxes say it can be used with oil. And, I have been wrong about guessing at Belgians as two totally worthless combo manufactured oilstones can attest to. Thankfully, I've been right on taking a chance more than I've been wrong.

Oh ****!

My vote: it's a Belgian Combo stone.
They're non porous, so they can be used with anything: water, lather or oil. Like Chris, I've also seen other old labels mentioning that.

If we are talking about the stone accompanying the red box, the division between the two colors (@the end of the hone)seems to me to be way too straight and definitive to be natural. If natural wouldnt it be a blur?

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

If we are talking about the stone accompanying the red box, the division between the two colors (@the end of the hone)seems to me to be way too straight and definitive to be natural. If natural wouldnt it be a blur?

It doesn't need to be a natural to be a combo. Today Ardennes Coticules glues the coticule to a slate back (they actually use slate flooring tiles, it's more cost-efffective doing it that way). In earlier times they usually glued coticule to a piece of blue shist, which is the same rock as the blue side of a natural combo stone.
But this still could be a natural combo, it's really not possible to tell based on that picture. (if it's a coticule at all...)

Bart.

I say its a combo! I am leaning towards natural!

I didn't realize you can click and see the large pictures - yeah the line is a bit too straight for a natural, but I'm pretty certain it's blue and yellow belgians.
They can be used also with oil, and so can the thuringians, and they most certainly were in the past. The consensus among those who have tried both seems to be that water is better.
In any case lapping will fix it - they are non-porous after all. On that topic I think Howard has said that the official procedure for purifying a coticule to a kosher state (not talking 'kosher coticule', just one that's been used with oil) is burrying it in the ground for a year (I think it's in an old thread here).

I didn't notice the other one. We would need pics of the edge to see if it's a natural. I looks like it may be a Belgian.