Thread: Glass hones?

There's a deco depression era green glass hone for sale on ebay, and the honing surface is half pipe shaped. Now I admit to being um inexperienced in the way of the blade, but how the heck do you use that thing, and how good would it be? Obviously not a beginner use item.

If I'm not mistaken that is meant for honing double edge blades. Never tried one as DE blades are relatively inexpensive.

They're not really a hone but a strop, and they are indeed meant for DE blades. When DE's first came out the blades were hella expensive, and being made of carbon steel didn't last very long and once the great depression hit that expense was less tolerable, and later there were shortages due to the war. Guys would strop them in a drinking glass to extend the life a few more days, but that's kind of cumbersome and these little Lillicraps "hones" did the same thing in a form factor that could be kept next to the aspirin bottle.

There's no point using them on modern DE blades because they're made of stainless and have special coatings on the blade that these strops will remove, actually making the blade worse. But they're an interesting collector's item, and some guys on these forums still use the industrial/medical HCS DE blades that you can buy by the hundredcount on the intertubes, and these benefit from a bit of stropping.

Yep, the most famous were the Lilicraps brand of DE Hone.

Does anyone know how these would be used?

Robert

For DE's, you press the razor down into the center of the curved sides with the cutting edges on the curves (cutting edges point up each end) and rub the razor back and forth (up and down the curved surfaces). No idea how many times though.

My paternal grandfather sharpened de blades on the surface of a drinking glass. Times were tough back then.

My dad has an old scalpel hone. It isn't a super half pipe shape, but its curved none the less. He asked if I wanted to use it for my straight razors, but by its shape and size (about 2"x2") it was obvious it wouldn't do the job. Interesting little hone though.

what about something like this? Buy Shapton Glass Stone 8000 Grit 5mm at Woodcraft.com

usable?

Originally Posted by ats200

what about something like this? Buy Shapton Glass Stone 8000 Grit 5mm at Woodcraft.com

usable?

the shapton glass hones are up there with the nortons and the naniwa series hones, used by many on this forum. I don't have any experience with the 8k shapton but the 16k is what I use for a finisher and seems to do the job quite well.