Thread: Vintage hones

I was wondering if any use them and are they worth using. I come across them spot and would like to know your experiences with them and if they are worth the buy

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Vintage hones is a seriously wide open area. There are a lot of them. There are many many kinds of naturals that cover a lot of grit range from intermediate to very fine finishers, and then there is synthetics, with the sub field of barbers hones. There are some barbers hones that are pretty darn nice and others that are medium grit but cut so fast it makes them tricky to use. So the answer is specifically yes some are great and can do wonders. It is easiest to first learn with synthetics as they are so much more consistent. Many people use vintage naturals for finishing.

Welcome aboard,,,,,,,,,,,

When you come across vintage hone, please photograph them & show us. We can discuss them & give you our thoughts on each.

When you think about it, ALL natural stones are vintage, by millions of years mostly. Old Quarries or new don't change the stones any. My rather New quarried stone, The Vermio is an example, it is in the line of thuringers for finishing.

Can I play too, won this one with a couple or razors. The auction said Motoyama Gotogi which does not mean anything to me.
Any ideas?

Gotogi is layered stone
Motoyama is the mine.

Originally Posted by Barrentine

I was wondering if any use them and are they worth using. I come across them spot and would like to know your experiences with them and if they are worth the buy

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Welcome to SRP. As Rezdog said, it really depends on the stone. Some are great, others good, or not so good. As Hirlau mentioned, if you have the opportunity to snap a pic and post it usually people can let you know what it is. We don't do appraisals of monetary value, but we can many times identify and assess the past performance qualities of a genre of stone.

Originally Posted by Rami

Can I play too, won this one with a couple or razors. The auction said Motoyama Gotogi which does not mean anything to me.
Any ideas?
Gotogi is layered stone
Motoyama is the mine.

Obviously a J-nat. I don't know that much about them in general, and nothing about that one in particular, but someone will be along who does. In the meanwhile give it a try and see how it performs for you.

Thanks Jimmy, need to get it first.

Well, a natural stone quarried today will be just as good in a thousand years as it is right now. As stated, they were formed over millions of years, time isn't going to effect them. Synthetics, well...it depends. Using the barber hones as an example some of them age very well and cut as fine an edge now as the day they left the factory. Others haven't stood the ravages of time and their binders are starting to degrade. So largely it depends on what the hone was made of, and how well cared for it was.

I would not hesitate to use an antique/vintage hone - in fact I have 2 old barber hones that reside in my bathroom medicine cabinet for an emergency touch up. If you've got a good one, they very much can be worth using, and if you keep an eye peeled can be a very good buy. I paid 15 bucks each for my barber hones, and some have found very nice stones in antique stores for under 10 bucks.

I like the old barber hones. I probably have 40 and enjoy playing with them. I like comparing them to each other to see if one is really superior to the other. One thing is certain if you get the papers in the box with the hone they will certainly claim to be the best hone maker. They are worth the buy in my opinion.

Some are good and some are bad. Mike modine knows more about them than anyone I can even think of. He must have tested over 100 of them so far. I like the three line Swaty, it's a pretty good one, and I use it often. It's kept in my bathroom.

I have seen some that vary a lot, from 3K to 12K and higher to ones that destroy an edge...