Thread: La Pratique razor hone

Originally Posted by DaveW

I mention that only with curiosity because BBWs are a marginal razor stone, but if one was found with a finer grain, it may make a fabulous razor finisher.

I would be very surprised if it were a BBW. I guess the decorations of the wrapper are Jugendstil aka art nouveau. However, the BBW has only recently been recognised as a hone.

If you buy a lot of old glued combos, you quickly see that you chances of getting salm or even la lorraine as the backing are pretty decent.

Regular BBW is honestly not all that hot as a hone. It's not that fine, it's slow, and that is the good bits, the bad are nearly useless imo.

I think it is thuri stone.

Originally Posted by DaveW

I mention that only with curiosity because BBWs are a marginal razor stone, but if one was found with a finer grain, it may make a fabulous razor finisher.

'Marginal' as in 'not very popular' or as in 'not very effective'? I will not argue with you on the first one (as it is not very popular), but all BBW's I have used (around ten) were quite capable of providing a comfortable shaving edge.

Originally Posted by kcb5150

Regular BBW is honestly not all that hot as a hone. It's not that fine, it's slow, and that is the good bits, the bad are nearly useless imo.

I found them to be quite fine, just a bit on the slow side. With the right technique and a bit of patience they can provide a shaving edge that is nearly indistinguishable from a good coticule edge.

They are great for (kitchen) knives, too. Very much 'splash-n-go', they slurry like nothing else.

But enough about that. As to not divert the attention of this thread too much:

Originally Posted by Kees

Although it is a natural Belgian hone I do not think it is a BBW, surface pattern looks quite different.

As for the "La Pratique", it is hard to tell from the picture. I cannot make out much of a surface pattern to begin with. I have seen BBWs of that colour though, but that does not really mean anything. I have seen Japanese naturals of that colour too .

Knives are a different story. I have had nice luck with them for knives, but given the speed and lack of top end, I'd rather use a coarser coticule for that sort of thing on razors. Funny thing is I almost always test the bbw on any old rock I get. Only ever came across one piece that was really good and it was the back to a choice Belgian hones combo. Had good speed and was hard/fine

Originally Posted by doorsch

I think its either a BBW or a Lorraine Rouge.....

The three on the left are Lorraine Rouge, the others types of BBW...



The Pratique was shown in Henks Grinding and Honing Part 4....Jörg owns or owned this type of stone....

Know that i remembered the Picture which Jörg had posted on Gut-Rasiert.de. He mentioned it is a La Lorraine....

So lets see if yours Kees is the same stuff...
I personally think so...

http://www.gut-rasiert.de/forum/inde...1116#msg411116

Originally Posted by Kees

I would be very surprised if it were a BBW. I guess the decorations of the wrapper are Jugendstil aka art nouveau. However, the BBW has only recently been recognised as a hone.

Kees, i can only partly share this.....when we agree that the Layer "La Lorraine" is a BBW Layer (mentioned in Henk Bos Grinding and Honing Part 4). We know that these stones have been sold under der Trademarks of F&Co. (Fassbinder & Co., Solingen) and under the Label "La Lorraine". I know that these stones are "La Lorraine" because i own and owned quite few of these stones....

Also F.G.B.C. better said it seems that also the precedessors company sold the stones under the label M.P.O.P. "La Lorraine", which couldnt be proved till to date. But iam sure and this is my "personal" interpretation that we talk about stones from the "la Lorraine" layer...

Actually they have not been sold as razor hones "explicitely" but as hones for fine instruments and tools, as many other razor hones have been sold...so if we count stones from the Layer "La Lorraine" as BBW stones, we need accept that these were used as razor hones also in the past. From what ive read Burton Rox was the company selling/marketing the stones of the La Lorraine layer first...

Saturday I will meet a few rockhounds and ask their opinion. It is a greyish stone when dry, purple when wet, fairly soft, slurry is purplish.
You might be right, it looks when wet like the 2nd stone from the left but a bit grayer when wet.

Originally Posted by Kees

Saturday I will meet a few rockhounds and ask their opinion. It is a greyish stone when dry, purple when wet, fairly soft, slurry is purplish.

I wish you much fun guys !!!