Thread: Passed down hone

Today my grandfather handed down to me a barber hone that was either my great grandfather's or my 2x great grandfather. I'm hoping someone could tell me a few things.

1) What type of hone is it?

2) how can I get the years of abuse that it has endured out of it and if possible make it usable again

here are some pics:

Man that's really cool! Any item passed down from family is priceless.

cant help you as far as identification , but a good lapping on a lapping plate will certainly remove the gouges and scratches !! ( unless they are super deep , then you will have a lot of lapping to do )

Looks like a Belgian Blue (BBW) but thats only the first guess, can you put up some daylight shots ?

You can lap it with water sanding paper, if the slurry gets violet/red its + more a indicator on a BBW

Thats how a BBW mostly looks like


Please dont thread it with anything before you do not know what it really is....

Can't tell you what kind of hone it is definitely looks like a Barbers hone as you've said. As far as getting it fixed up to use, I would start by drawing a grid in pencil on one side and lap it. Use a known flat surface and wet dry sandpaper maybe start at 325 grit and go up from there. I believe there's a bit more to treating a barbers hone than just lapping it flat, so I hope someone can enlighten us all on that, I believe it can involve coating the hone with Vaseline? Very cool that you have the history of the hone of at least who owned it.

Originally Posted by doorsch

Looks like a Belgian Blue (BBW) but thats only the first guess, can you put up some daylight shots ?

You can lap it with water sanding paper, if the slurry gets violet/red its + more a indicator on a BBW

I'll see about getting yall some daylight shots tomorrow. That would be wonderful if I happened to have gotten a blue, but we'll see.

It could be Voisienne rouge q this hone must be lapped carefull and put into wooden box . The chances of breaking the stone at this thickness are quite big , if not puter into or glued to a base =

The chips in the third photo suggest to me that it is a synthetic.

I'm with doorsch on this one, a quick lapping should reveal whether it's a BBW or not. If it's a BBW you should go back to your grandfather and ask for the other half

BBWs were used as backing for coticules but some are useful stones. Either way nice to have an heirloom hone!

Ohhh BBW are amazing stones . In my progresion my synthetics are up to 1200 ( Makita stone ) the finest than that 1200 are naturals , but the best and fast bevel seter is a BBW . You forget whith wath your mesing .This is an beautifull midle to fine frit stone that gives exelent sharpness ,very fast .
As the coticules could be sometimes tricky , and degrade the sharpness , you cant go wrong with the purple coti .
For me ,BBW is the most universal sharpening stone ever .I just love mine .