Thread: Ever seen a Hone like this?

A customer of mine brought this hone into my shop, he knows I collect/obsess over Razors and such. I have never seen a hone like this? It seems to be either a barber hone? I cant tell what its made of but its very smooth must be 10k or higher. Any info would be much appreciated! thank you

My guess would be a Translucent Arkansas stone, but it is hard to tell for sure.

Have you ever used a hone like this? I have used it to finish with and seems to work alright! thanks

I haven't used any arkansas stones for razors yet, but from what I have read on here is that they can be used as finishers depending on the quality. What I like about them is the fact that they are so hard. Once they are lapped flat they will stay flat. I am hoping that someone else will see this and chime in because I am not sure it is an Arkansas stone.

Well i am not the most experienced with honing but I will say i like this hone alot better to finish with then I do my norton stone. It is very flat like you had mentioned and it gives my razors a nice edge.

Give it a good cleaning. If it's a trans stone it should make for a very nice finisher

What did the collector say it was? What is the size?

Hard to say from the photos, the beveled corner looks like it might be a translucent or hard white ark. Ones I have done can look like that, you won’t know until it is cleaned up.

Spray it down with oven cleaner and scrub with a stiff brush after letting it soak in for 10-15 minutes. Rinse in soapy water and do it again until all the surface oil and grit that is coming off does.

Then soak in a 25 -50 percent solution of Simple Green and water, a jar works best. It will release oil for days, weeks or months. You don’t have to get all the oil off to use it, but they can be smelly.

Do not lap it, if it is smooth, lapping a well-used well-burnished stone will cause you to have to burnish it again and will take many, many hundreds/thousands of laps with a carbon steel knife or plane blade to get back to where it was. Try it first.

Work on the smoothest, flattest side. I have had best results with water and 2-3 drops of Smith’s honing solution. If it is a high grit ark you will get a hazy (Kasumi) bevel and a keen crisp edge.

It should feel like you are honing on wet glass.

Nothing, like a good ark edge.

Once you clean it up, post a photo. If it is a translucent a flashlight will shine through.

Enjoy.

I'd say it is well oiled Arkansas of some kind or other

You guys have forgotten the easiest test. Shine a flashlight through it. If it is translucent it will shine through. The oil might keep it from shining all the way through but you should still be able to notice translucency. Obviously cleaning will make it better. Simple green definitely helps. My guess is an arkie.

Originally Posted by barberbrett

A customer of mine brought this hone into my shop, he knows I collect/obsess over Razors and such. I have never seen a hone like this? It seems to be either a barber hone? I cant tell what its made of but its very smooth must be 10k or higher. Any info would be much appreciated! thank you

My Opinion seems like a Arkansas type stone. If it's the clear stuff that can be found out by seeing if a light shines though it.