Does Anyone Know If These are Brass Hones??

Was in Hobart, Tasmania a month ago looking for razors at this antique store where the owner had recently purchased deceased estate goods from a barbershop.
Found a couple of razors for my beginners collection and was shown this (below) brass items inwhich the owner had no idea what function they performed. He was keen to get my opinion, however I had to point out (after I had purchased 4 x razors) that I only own 1 razor and was not the best person to ask.
The brass "hones" as we called them were close to 8kgs and were not perfectly curved but pretty close.

I am not associated to the owner in any way or form but thought that I would share this with the intentions of finding an answer for all.
I don't know how to make a link, so here is the address.
Rare Antique Barber Shop Cut Throat Razor Brass Hones Rare!Rare! | Collectables | Gumtree Australia Hobart City - Hobart CBD

;)

Those are interesting, I am interested as to what they are used for now.

The only curved hones I've ever seen were meant for DE blades. Usually glass. I haven't seen anything like those before. Interesting. Copied the photo and posting it in case the link ends and no one knows what we're talking about in the future. :chapeau

Attachment 122744

"His wife said they were used to cool the blades after sharpening. "
Say what?

I can't imagine those have any role in straight razor maintenance. What purpose could they have? Brass is softer than steel, and it isn't abrasive. The curve would be inconsistent with a real hone, that should be flat.

I don't know what they are, but I'm pretty comfortable saying that they are not hones.

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Originally Posted by robellison01

I can't imagine those have any role in straight razor maintenance. What purpose could they have? Brass is softer than steel, and it isn't abrasive. The curve would be inconsistent with a real hone, that should be flat.

I don't know what they are, but I'm pretty comfortable saying that they are not hones.

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Well, you can hone on brass, I've cut and fasetted precious stones on brass, copper, aluminium and tin, all you need as something on them like diamond, SiC, tinoxid or the like, you add it as paste or powder and there is hones that are concave for honing razor blades. But these look strange to me, hopefully we can get some more info on them.

As above you can charge any non-ferrous metal such a brass with abrasives and use it as a hone.But the tools above I have no clue what they may be.

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Originally Posted by pixelfixed

As above you can charge any non-ferrous metal such a brass with abrasives and use it as a hone.But the tools above I have no clue what they may be.

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Ferrous works fine too, like this one; Polierstahl (Uraoshi) | DICTUM GmbH - Mehr als Werkzeug
My father have some old Swedish cast iron plates that has been flattened and used with SiC for plane blades and such, I'm gonna steal them some day! ;)
Why did you think ferrous wouldn't work?

Never said ferrous would not work.

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Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Never said ferrous would not work.

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Ahh, sorry, I read it like that when you wrote non-ferrous!

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Originally Posted by Lemur

"His wife said they were used to cool the blades after sharpening. "
Say what?

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Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Mine is that they're doorstops. ;)

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Well, you can hone on brass, I've cut and fasetted precious stones on brass, copper, aluminium and tin, all you need as something on them like diamond, SiC, tinoxid or the like, you add it as paste or powder and there is hones that are concave for honing razor blades. But these look strange to me, hopefully we can get some more info on them.

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Surely, the things warranted a special case and seem to be highly valued. Is one brass and one bronze, I wonder?

Been looking at them off and on all day.Do not know what they are,but they are beautifull things:)

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

The only curved hones I've ever seen were meant for DE blades. Usually glass. I haven't seen anything like those before. Interesting. Copied the photo and posting it in case the link ends and no one knows what we're talking about in the future. :chapeau

Attachment 122744

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If pulled from right to left in this picture it would give you a convex bevel, more for a knife or axe.

Tim

Might they be heatsinks to cool newly forged blades?? they would nestle to gether with a blade in the center?just guessing,have no clue

Fascinating objects - thanks for drawing them to my attention, Oz, and the OP, of course!

I have looked through a load of old barber supplies catalogues, and seen nothing even remotely similar in them. When you think of the variety of services these establishments offered over the years (shaving, shampooing, hair cutting, women's beauty parlours, baths, hot drinks, sanitising, shoe polishing, all sorts of soaps, creams, scents and potions, strops, razors, hones, pastes, clippers, scissors, hair curling) it would seem only natural that a well-appointed barbers supplier like Koken, Koch or Jones, for example, would have these listed. But not in any of the ones I have looked in which span the late 1800s to the 1920s.

The box is a bit of a puzzle, too. If you look at the series of pics on the original link, the hinged side has a hook and eye on it?! Obviously not to lock it shut - there is a conventional lock on the front - but maybe to prevent it opening? Very odd.

The holes in the side of the box are strange, too. I don't think they are original - one is square, and one is a bit of a bodge-up - curved at the bottom, but scribe marks show it was intended to be square. Who makes square finger holes? Who carries a box with heavy weights in it by their finger tips? If the holes are to assist in getting the weights out of the box, why is only one of the two partitions treated like that? Why hasn't the case got a stout handle on it if intended to be carried? Perhaps the purpose of the holes was to put something through the case - a longer rod or bar, maybe?

The interior surface of the lid is at variance with the contents too - there is a mark on it which does not correspond to those two weights in any way at all.

I'm not convinced that the box originally housed those weights.

Cooling a blade after sharpening? What was that barber using to hone with? No, I don't think so. If the blade was being re-ground it might need cooling, but you would use water or conceivably oil, for that.

As a heat sink for a newly forged blade? Oil again.

But what could you use them for? If placed at variable distances apart they could support something curved or cylindrical. I have an old photographic contrivance that uses skids like that to hold a developing tank on its side while you gently roll it. I suppose if you heated the brass bits first they could be used as temperature controlling skids for such a developing tank. Doesn't seem very likely though.

I suppose if your strop was cupped you could fix one end to a table, pull it over one of the blocks and keep the tension on it to remove the cupping and provide an impromptu bench strop with a bit of 'give' in the middle. But why two blocks? And surely a barber would just buy a new strop?

Hones? Why? For what? They bear a passing similarity to DE safety razor blade hones like the Lillicrap, but those have a proper, equal curve. For a razor? Besides that, they are generally made of glass or some sort of ceramic. Each one is a bit under 9 inches long, take a bit off that for the upright end and you get around 8 inches, take a bit more off for the extremely curved end, and its more like 6 inches. They are only a fraction over 2 inches wide. Most razors have a cutting edge of around two and half to just under three inches, so you would have to use an inclined angle, and lose even more of the available honing length.

I don't think the marks on them come from honing at all. More likely they are the result of cleaning off the powdery whitish salts and greenish verdigris you find on brass/bronze.

I would love to know what they are for.

Regards,
Neil

I've seen curved hones for woodworking tools, like adzes and especially curvy things of which I don't know the English names.

The only blocks of metal like that I've seen were for a copy lathe... but I have no idea, sent the link to some friends to see if anybody ever seen the like!