Carborundum hones

I recently found an old, embossed, black box carborundum at a local antique haunt. There was no number on the stone or box, but it turned out to be an incredible finisher! It has now moved to the top of my barber hone list. I'm also curious about the two tone color box carbies. They all seem to be of a 102, 103+ number. I was wondering if the black, embossed, older boxes are of the 101 variety as a rule. Mine is a 4X2 which I assume is the 101a size. I probably lost the number when I boiled mine in Tide laundry detergent to get the gunk out, and off of it. It went from a near black to a primer grey in only two boilings!

I also have one #118 does anyone know what the numbers mean?

I think I read somewhere that the Carborundum numbers mean a larger size to the grit meaning a coarser hone. The silicon carbide was all the same hardness, but of different size, thus different numbers. Of course, I may have dreamed this somewhere, too, and may be all wrong!

check this you will find what you need
http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...teristics.html

Back in 1968 I was given a 3 Line Swaty hone and a Carborundum 118S to use as a flattening hone. It really works well on the Swaty.
Sham was interested in the carborundum stones. Pay close attention to what he says about them................

Jerry
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Carbo is my roughest barber hone. Both my DimoGrit and Swaty are smoother than it. My 4k IceBear is smoother than it... by a good bit. I'd say it's no more than 5k. There's a lot of variance within the material.