Thread: Need help identifying ~50 year old combo hone

New here, and about a month or so into wet shaving. I'm really interested in the prospect of restoring and maintaining all the razors I've gotten so far (some cheapo's from eBay as well as a few decent finds at flea markets, e.g. a super sharp wade& butcher and a Torrey that needs some TLC).

I've been honing my honing skills and knowledge most recently and, long story short, I mentioned this to a guy in his 50s who drinks at the bar I work at said he had his dad's old stone in the garage, and that he didn't use it so I could have it.

His dad was a butcher, so I had to lap the hell out of it and clean it on and off using the different methods I found here and on a few other forums and wiki's, and this is where I'm at so far:

unidentified hone - Album on Imgur

I've been digging and digging but I haven't been able to find anything like it... The reddish side looked mostly unused and was very smooth, but as I've been cleaning and soaking and boiling and scrubbing and degreasing it, the color is changing from a red I've come to associate with fine India, but the splotches of color continuing to fade maxes me think I'm getting closer to getting it as clean as it can be.

It's 7x2x3/4, and the side he used is orange/brown with little black specks, the other side is some kind of tan/orange.

Thanks in advance for your help, everyone :-)

It's certainly a synthetic. Possibly Carborundum/India. Black specks usually is an indication of silicon carbide, and red/orange, as you know, of India/aluminum oxide. I think there were stones made of a blend of both as well - called Alundum maybe? The finer side of that stone will almost certainly be the side without black specks of course.

Definitely synthetic. Agree with the above. Probably not a really fine stone. Might be a bevel setter

Bumping because I'm still trying to figure it out...
The only stones I've seen so far that come close to the one in question is ceramic... Anyone think I'm on the right track? Also, if it's synthetic, then should I be pushing like I am not to get as much of that oil out as possible so I can use it with water for a good slurry? When I was lapping it and I degreased it for a while, I was getting a pretty good slurry going from soaking it for about 5 min in warm water and doing circles on sandpaper...

It is certainly synthetic, almost surely a silicon carbide or aluminum oxide oil stone. These are not a whole lot of use for razor work except possibly as noted above for bevel setting. They are very coarse and not usually used with slurry.

Could be a Frictionite, not sure about the sizes, I know they made some large one and I have one about that size and another larger… somewhere.

Color is a bit off but, could be the photo or 50 years of oil and swarf.

Soak in 50 percent Simple Green and water until it stops releasing oil. They can hold some oil, may take weeks.

Mike Wolfpack34 is a Frictionite collector and could tell you more.

Nah, that's no Frictionite IMO. Pretty sure the larger ones were only made in single grit, 2.5" x 8". They don't have black specks in them either.

Have a stone (or the third or so that is left of it ) down in the shed. Just had a look and yellow one side dark yellow/orange the other. Came from my dads uncle who passed in may last year just before turning 100. Undoubtedly an old stone definitely synthetic. The measurement is 2 inch wide by 4/5 inch high and probably about 7 long if complete. Looks fairly similar to yours. Like you it is the only stone I have seen with this colouration. It is a standard course/fine stone and would be good for a knife. Hope this helps a little

India hone

Put a kitchen knife to it and look at the stria?

That it was in a handmade box says it was prized by someone, but you have to remember, a 800, 1K edge is a fine thing for plane blade or chisel and 200-400 stone for removing chips is great and the combo could keep a guy working for a long time.

It is synthetic, and folks have been making good synthetic stones for a long time, look at all the barber hones out there still.

You might get better results if you posted the photos in the thread and took some better lit photos and some close ups.