Thread: Honing stones - determining grit

I have an offer to buy some old honing stones that were used in a barber shop. The problem is that he has no idea what grit they are. All he can tell me is that "they are very smooth." I was wondering if there is a way to determine grit size or if it would be a case of hone and hope.

If you know little about hones it will be a matter of "hone and hope", not much hope either I am afraid. These things come with experience (experience = mistakes, money badly spent). If you could take some pics of what your barber friend has we could help a lot more. First question I have to ask is, "Are the hones he is selling naturals or barber hones or other synthetics? Pics please, the more the better.

Originally Posted by miltownerb

I have an offer to buy some old honing stones that were used in a barber shop. The problem is that he has no idea what grit they are. All he can tell me is that "they are very smooth." I was wondering if there is a way to determine grit size or if it would be a case of hone and hope.

I like the answer "Hone and Hope" from nun2sharp.

Hones used in barber shops are mostly good hones.
If they are natural the only way is to compare with modern man made hones.
Some polish a block of steel then run it on the hone and inspect
the scratches under a microscope. They then compare the scratches
against known man made hones.

Some hones are famous and well known enough that pictures
will be all that is needed to get you an ID. Boxes and printing
on the edges may also be clues.

If the offer is reasonable you could get lucky. If there are
any razors in the lot they can clue you in.

OK, I was able to get him to send me some images. Apparently they are old barber shop hones. Unfortunately, he knows very little about hones (less than me even, which is impressive) so he's not sure if they are natural or synthetic. One looks natural to me and the other synthetic.

The one on the right looks like a thurigan. The are great finishing stones.