Thread: I need your hone master help identifying these stones

Gentlemen, I could use your assistance identifying these types of stones and what grit you might or might not think they are. I'm trying to ensure that I'm sharping my razors correctly.

This stone is very smooth, the chips are not sharp in any way.

This swaty feels courser than my 3 line swaty pictured beside it, it's strange in that both sides are different.






This stone feels quite course on the green side and smoother on the top

This stone is kind of purple and only smooth on the top. The back is raw.

This stone feels smoother on the purple side than the white top but the purple side has no razor marks on the bottom leading me to think it's not to be used. The stone appears to be glued?

This seems to be the most used stone of them all, again, just the top was used and boy, I'm sure the barber could really sharpen an edge because there's to bowls carved into the top.






Any help is highly appreciated

I can't help you much, but the 2 hones in the last 2 posts definitely look like coticules. One looks like a glued combo, and the other a natural combo. By combo I mean the purple/blue backing is BBW (Belgian Blue Whetstone).

Dave, thanks for the information, any guesses as to what the grit might or might not be.

Originally Posted by ChayesFSS

Dave, thanks for the information, any guesses as to what the grit might or might not be.

Assuming those 2 are coticules, an exact grit cannot be put on them. But generally they are said to perform around the 8000 range. It really depends if you use them with slurry or with water. The backside (dark blue side) is probably BBW as I mentioned, and that is somewhere in the 4000 range. Those are complete ballparks since they are natural stones, i.e. they vary, but those 2 coticules look VERY nice. If I were you I would lap those coticules and try them out! My advice is to search for any thread/post of Bart's. Here's our resident coticule expert.

As for the other stones...I'm not much help there.....Sorry.

I believe as dave does the final two are combo coticles, The blue belgian(purple) ranges approx 4-6 k grit and the yellow approx 8-10. As the stones are a natural occurence there is no quality control these are only approximations and probably open to debate.

No idea what that first hone is but regardless of how smooth the chips in the edges are you want to chamfer them out.