Thread: "Natural" hone

I have a minor disagreement with a ebay seller. He currently has listed HERE a small two sided Belgian hone which he is calling a "vintage natural two sided razor hone." I wrote to him and complimented him on the hone, told him it will likely sell well, but informed him that it is not a "natural" hone because the two sides have been glued together. He replied that because it consists of natural rock that it is natural. I explained again in more detail but he is unconvinced.

Maybe he'll be convinced if he hears from someone else, but I doubt it.

That's a puzzling hone.

I know that Ardennes glues Coticule to a piece of slate, that has no honing use.
And yet, it looks very much like a Belgian Blue.
Possibly it's an older hone, form a different source than Ardennes.

The description doesn't match the usual SRP jargon, where "natural" means "naturally bonded" in that context. However, I don't think that, according to everyday use of the English language, he's making a false statement. Unless I'm wrong about the Blue. Hard to tell from pictures alone.

Bart.

From the pictures, I'm pretty sure it's a blue on the bottom. The garnets are quite visible. Like I said, it's a minor disagreement. In the sense that it is not synthetic, it is natural, except for the glue.

I was talking with Howard (Perfect Edge) on the phone awhile back and the subject of yellow and blue glued together came up. He told me that the glued "naturals" hadn't been done that way in many years. I think he said a hundred years ? I cannot recall but it was long ago.

I'm not sure, but I believe gluing to slate, is something introduced by Ardennes. Let's hope Rob chimes in to shed some light here.
Due to increasing labor costs, it's more economical to glue to slate, purchased externally, than to produce flat slabs of blue from the quarry. That's what Rob said during my visit. Most vintage Coticules seen on Ebay are glued to Blue. I don't think it dates back more than 30 years, since they stopped doing that.

In the mid 80s I bought three vintage coticules from three different barbers in Newark, NJ. One was a natural (not glued) and the other two were yellow glued to slate. Regrettably I sold them on ebay in December of 2006 after having them in a drawer unused by me for all of those years. These were the larger coticules maybe 6X2 1/2" with Made in Belgium stamped on the side. Wish now that I had kept them.

It is definitely a blue - it has the funny shimmery look (the garnets?) that slate does not have.

Personally I would call that a natural combination - hone, as opposed to say a Norton 4/8 which I would call a synthetic combination - hone.

If it were not glued, I would call it a natural-combination hone. Or, around you guys (experts, I mean), I'd just call it a natural Belgian combo. Because we all know that "Belgian" (in this context) means natural stone, the "natural" in "natural Belgian combo" clearly refers to the join, not the media.

And again the hyphen raises its ugly head...

James.

The stones are natural. The hone is not.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

The stones are natural. The hone is not.

Ah, good point.

But what if the glue is natural too? We need to check that.

James.

Even if the glue is natural, the hone is not natural, unless little belgian mine mites are gluing the rocks together under our noses