And one final note - the people at Success told me that after their hone maker died, they tried to reproduce the hones themselves, but they were unsuccessful. Too bad.
I thought it might be worthwhile for them (or even someone else??) to do some serious research and, based on the ingredients involved, and the equipment used, attempt a stronger effort to reproduce the hones. But apparently there is no real desire to do so. Once again too bad as I fear that the true synthetic "Swaty" style barber hone may now be a lost art.
Scott