yohannrjm's first ever antique store hone find
I've been trolling antique stores ever since I was bitten with the straight razor bug - about 10 years ago. I never find anything. They usually have nothing or sometimes an overpriced synthetic combo for honing tools or knives.
Anyway, I picked these slates up today. Nice price and they looked interesting.
They have no labels and are probably unidentifiable, but I'll prepare them and give them a go and see if there are any razor-worthy hones here.
Here they are as I got them. I was intrigued by the greenish one on the right of the ruler. The longest hone is 7 inches long, the two on either side of it are about 6" long and the two on the right of the ruler are about 5" long (though the green one looks like it was cut by a previous owner).
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...19_1603530.jpg
I washed them a bit, and here they are again (this time I put the lighter ones on the right and the darker ones on the left):
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...19_1606370.jpg
The one just to the right of the ruler is a lightish green. The one to the right of it is a slightly darker blue-green. The two smaller ones to the left of the ruler are very dark grey - bordering on black. The largest one is a nice dark grey.
Finally, I lapped them (up to a point - some of them need more work, though I never saw the point in lapping to very edge, as I don't use the last 1/4" or so for honing).
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...19_1634461.jpg
I was thrilled to note that the greenish hone once had a label on the end. There's only a glue stain now, and I wonder what the label was). This hone was once longer. The other end was cut off post-manufacture - I can tell by the different saw marks and the fact that that end is not square.
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...19_1635015.jpg
So, they're all slates. That may be all we'll ever know.
Once I get some razors honed on them, I'll know more.
What do you guys think? Any hope here?
(Round 2 with some non-slate hones will come later this weekend)