Thread: Barber hones characteristics

Just got this in today. I suck at honing so I don't know if its any good or not. Interestingly, the hone itself says "Pike" with the little stylized "P" symbol on it. Feels pretty darn smooth on both sides, but if I had to vote I'd say the red (bottom) side is the finer grit of the two. With my luck, it's probably not even a razor hone! lol.

at first thank you for posting.
In fact it is a barber hone and fine side is where the brand name is "pike" red side is courser.
try it out and let us know please how it works.

This one seems to be around 1k in grit. You can feel the grit when you rub it and can even see individual particles. Water goes through it like a sieve. When I tried lapping it, I went through 3 sheets of 120 grit and couldn't bevel the edges significantly, nor lap the scratch marks off of it. it is HARD!

Goog

I like this one a lot. I'd call the white side 8K+ and the brown side maybe 4k. I can slowly sharpen with the brown side, but not put a bevel on a blade. The white side is an excellent finisher.

Goog

Beautiful Hones
I really like the look of the twin sided one, that seems like a perfect combination
Thank you for sharing
Best regards
Ralfson (Dr)

I keep seeing one particular combination barber hone over and over--same look, same sticker on the side, but different brands. See the picture below. I have this one as a "Reliance" hone, but also have an identical one labeled as "Dubl Duck" with the box and embossed on the stone. I have seen other "brandings" of this stone as well. The typography of the sticker, the color, are all identical.

I like the "Reliance" because the brand is just printed on the side with no embossing of the honing surface, so you have the full length to work with.

Aam I safe in thinking that there was one manufacturer and that these companies all just put their brand on it? "Dubl Duck" I know is a great old razor, but may I assume the "Dubl Duck" combo hone is no different from the "Reliance" combo hone?

If so, what does anyone know the manufacturer? I'm just curious, and would like to know more about this hone.

Originally Posted by LawsonStone

I keep seeing one particular combination barber hone over and over--same look, same sticker on the side, but different brands. See the picture below. I have this one as a "Reliance" hone, but also have an identical one labeled as "Dubl Duck" with the box and embossed on the stone. I have seen other "brandings" of this stone as well. The typography of the sticker, the color, are all identical.

I like the "Reliance" because the brand is just printed on the side with no embossing of the honing surface, so you have the full length to work with.

Aam I safe in thinking that there was one manufacturer and that these companies all just put their brand on it? "Dubl Duck" I know is a great old razor, but may I assume the "Dubl Duck" combo hone is no different from the "Reliance" combo hone?

If so, what does anyone know the manufacturer? I'm just curious, and would like to know more about this hone.

For the ones you mentioned, they were made by the American Hone Company, first in Olean, NY and then in Moravia, IA. They certainly made frequent use of that side sticker but I have seen some two sided hones not made by that company that still had a similar sticker.

You are correct in your assumption that this company made hones for many other companies. Whether or not the hones were identical in composition or only subtly different is pretty much left to speculation at this point. I would guess that they were slightly but not significantly different.

I see also that in addition to Dubl Duck and Reliance, the same combination hone also was marketed as O.V.B. (p. 7 of this thread).

Sorry I'm so obsessive about this, but I am very interested in the different brandings of the same basic product, and whether there were actually differences in quality, i.e. tolerances and maybe one company got a "better" product while another got a cheaper one.

Tonight or tomorrow...I have a barber hone that looks like a Swaty but is labeled "SRD" "Straight Razor Designs?"

Except that it's really old. I'd love to hear all the historians of hones talk about that one.

I love this kind of thread, thanks for all the knowledge and pictures!

Originally Posted by LawsonStone

I see also that in addition to Dubl Duck and Reliance, the same combination hone also was marketed as O.V.B. (p. 7 of this thread).

Sorry I'm so obsessive about this, but I am very interested in the different brandings of the same basic product, and whether there were actually differences in quality, i.e. tolerances and maybe one company got a "better" product while another got a cheaper one.

Tonight or tomorrow...I have a barber hone that looks like a Swaty but is labeled "SRD" "Straight Razor Designs?"

Except that it's really old. I'd love to hear all the historians of hones talk about that one.

I love this kind of thread, thanks for all the knowledge and pictures!

The SRD stands for S. R. Droescher, Inc., which was an importer and retailer of razors and hones. The coincident acronym with Straight Razor Designs is confusing but I would assume it to be a simple coincidence.

The SRD hones were also made by the American Hone Company. The SRD hones were not genuine Swatys. The hone that is labeled "Swaty Three Line Hone" also is not a genuine Swaty.