Thread: Ebay Hone Win

It LOOKS like its backed with Belgian blue. Test it. make a slurry with it. If it slurries purple, its a blue. If its grey or whitish, its a slate. you can use a slate to hone with, but the types of slate vary wildly, so if you are not experienced with them, you will want to skip that.

It should, by all means, be a Belgian blue whetstone. No harm in trying to slurry, though, just to be sure.

The blue stone was (and still is) found in the same mines as the yellow coticule, in abundance. It was most likely already extracted to get to the yellow (as it is now), so it makes sense that they used it as backing.

Received the Coticule and barber hone today. Quick shipper . The Barber hone was in pretty bad shape dished on both sides and filthy. Coticule is a lot smaller than I imagined. Shouldn't have been surprised, the dimensions were in the ad. But, It is in great shape and lapped super easy. Here are some pictures after going at both with 220 grit W/D paper.








Surprisingly the Hone cleaned up well and I was able to lap out the dish on both sides. Took about 45 minutes on the 220 grit. I then spent a little time on 400 and then 800 grit. Both came out really nice and seem to work well.
The hone seems a bit generic. The writing says, "Barber's Razor Hone" and nothing else. During lapping it built a really thick slurry about the consistency of Mississippi mud. Looked like reddish brown clay mixed with water.
Also, it is definitely a Belgian Blue Water Stone backing. It built a milky purple slurry when lapped.

That coticule looks like it has some interesting features. I'd love to see a closeup of it. If you add some water too it can bring out the colors and patterns of the stone. Looks great.

The yellow side is pretty consistent. The blue side is really interesting. Lots of color variations and streaking patterns.
I honed a griffon Carbo magnetic on it today also. Love the feel of the coticule. Lots of feedback and drag with a slurry, buttery smooth with just water.
Will post more picks and impressions of the shave tomorrow.

Just got a shave in with the Carbo magnetic after a little honing on the coticule. The stone left a very fine and uniform scratch pattern. Not as clean looking as edges I've honed on other stones and stopped on paste. After 20 on linen and 60 on leather I gave it a shave. The Griffon is usually my keenest razor, it is also the thinnest ground razor I have. The Coticule tamed it a bit. Got a nice comfortable shave even though it doesn't seem as sharp, or aggressive, as after honing on my Nortons, c12k or pasted strops ...etc. Think I'll run it on CrOx next time it comes up in the rotation, but can definitely get a nice shave straight of the Coticule.

As promised here are some close ups :


Funny, you can't really see all the little speckles that show up in the picture.


The blue side isn't as interesting today. After lapping it had streaks and speckles of all different shades of blue and purple. After drying overnight they are gone, don't even show up when it is wet. I guess the stone soaked up a little water during lapping?
Also, I'm really happy with how I was able to smooth out the chip seen in the original, ebay, picture. The bottom left corner in this picture.

Next time try some more laps on your linen. Coti edges seem to really improve from a good linen stropping.

I'll give the linen a try before I hit it with the CrOx. BTW: Less keen isn't a bad thing with this particular razor. The Carbo Magnetic is extra, extra hollow ground and the edge can be a bit too much. I have to be very careful with that particular razor, it bites. I actually liked the shave off the Coticule better than other methods. Much smoother and more forgiving.

One last set of pictures for the thread. I treated the "Barbers Razor Hone" with Vaseline. I really like the looks of it now. I covered the hone with heated Vaseline and set it in the sun in a plastic baggy for a few hours. It really soaked the Vaseline up. Can't feel it on the surface now.

Any guesses on what this is and how it would be best used?

The Barber's Hone is actually a reddish brown color. Not grey as it looks in the picture.