Swaty

I'm looking at a Swaty hone on ebay. It looks very nice and seems in very good shape. I noticed that they several colors and this one is dark brown. Is that how you tell what grit it is? Looks like it will go for about $50 is that good or to much?

They usually are a chocolate brown IME. I think fifty is about double what I have seen them go for on average. Be aware that the true Swaty will be made in Austria. There are also Pike and others that borrowed the name. They may be good too but the original is usually stamped Marburg, Austria. :gl:

Gotcha. It is marked Austria and is a chocolate brown color. I just wish I knew what the grit on these are. It seems all the shaving stuff is going up in price.
One razor I posted that a fellow was going to sell me at $100 went for $271! It was a Red Point nice but very high for that one. He apologized for selling it but he couldn't turn down that much money.

Give it some time and you will find one at a reasonable price. Things get talked about on the forums and they get "hot" for awhile. I have read on the forums that a Swaty is in the 12K grit range.

That certainly seems true. I'm not going to get caught up in a feeding frenzy that's for sure:-) There are a lot out there I'm sure. That's good to know. I wasn't sure what grit they were. I'm just learning day by day--LOL.

I think I saw that swaty you're talking about and it is new with paperwork and all. Whie it may work just the same as a dumpy looking one, you don't find them often in sych nice state, so the rarity is worth more money to many. i mean if you can choose between a poor loking one and a really nice one, how much price difference if any will make you pick the poor looking one. Also a swaty with chips is no fun to lap.
They are nice finishing hones for sure, I'd say pretty much the only widely avilable reliable brand, and with the coticule prices going up they are not a bad bargain. I'd say if your time is abundant and free you can find a $5 swaty in good usable condition, my be even cheaper. But whenever I've done cost to benefit analysis it's worth paying overhead as high as 50%-100%.

It stopped or I should say slowed down at $37 but it'll take off the closer we get. I may go up a bit more. I would certainly like to have a new one like this.

I took a look at it and read the description. The fact that it has been lapped as it has is worth a good $20.00 by itself IMHO. Anyone who has ever lapped one of these to flat would most likely agree. They take forever and of the three I have all needed flattening. I'm talking an hour or two per Swaty. As hard as they are you would have to hone one heck of a lot of razors before you would need to flatten it again.

Yep, I took a shot at it after everyones input. It went for $45 and I bid $50. My darn program misfired and didn't put my bid in or I would have had it. Oh well another is coming up soon at a lower price. Hopefully it will be pretty flat and not used a lot.