Thread: Glass hone/strop thingy

Hi guys,

I picked up something for a few bucks at a secondhand shop today amongst a load of decrepit barbers gear (rusted razors, cracked strops). It's a stone/tile about 5 x 3 inches, 1/2" thick, lime green and seems to be made out of some sort of opaque glass or ceramic. One side has been ground down perfectly flat and the edges chamfered, while the other sides are rough and irregular.

Any ideas as to what it could be? It doesn't seem to be abrasive at all, so my current thinking is that it functions as a kind of glass strop, similar to the curved glass strops for DE blades, or may have been used with abrasives of some sort.

Cheers,
Joel.

Possibley some sort of barber hone for use with pastes?

The way I can see that being used is to put successivley finer pastes on it as you touch up the edge, and wiping the old paste off before applying the new one.

Good find! I'm interested to see what other members chime in with..!

Or conversly it could be any one of several grits of barbers hone. once you are finer than about a thousand grit all the human finger can tell you is smooth.

Or, thinking laterally - it could be a tile left over from the decorative border of the barbershop...

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Or, thinking laterally - it could be a tile left over from the decorative border of the barbershop...

Regards,
Neil

That thought came to my mind

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Or, thinking laterally - it could be a tile left over from the decorative border of the barbershop...

Regards,
Neil

He he he

Thank you for the chuckle!

....maybe I'm just tired, but whatever works.


As for the tile, if it were decorative, it should have a very rough texture or pattern on the back to present an easy purchase for the mortar or grout used to attach it to the wall, if it's just rough as in unfinished I would say probably not decorative....unless it was a floor tile!

I am going to have to guess on the side of it being either a glazed over (extremely well used) barber hone, or some kind of paste block like others before me have already suggested.

Just tested it with a safety razor blade. Rubbed the edge back and forth a dozen times, and it doesnt seem to leave any sort of scratch on the edge when under the microscope. I'm suspecting more and more that its a tile or glass strop rather than a barber hone. Might find a use for it at some time but first I need to get my razor sharpened and honed


After further testing, I found that a piece of paper is less likely to blow away when this thing is placed on top of it.