Thread: ebay hone buying guide.

Recently i have noticed A lot seller puts name "razor hone" to their stone and selling it.
Even that stone is not suitable for final finishing straight razor.
I will try to be short and hope this information will help some of you.
1. Always contact seller and ask questions about the stone you are interested.
2. Ask for better pics.
3. it is a lot easier to buy synthetic barber hones then naturals.
4. Don't buy Japanese stones if seller doesn't guarantee the his stones grit and quality.
you will go in to deep rabbit hole.
5.Make sure seller does understand what is he selling.
This is my couple attempt to help seller not to misguide buyers.
at the moment Frictionite synthetic hones selling very high price.
Some seller calls Combo coticules as a frictionate stone. when i told the seller your stone is not frictionite stone his answer? i had couple of them and this stone similar to that frictionite stone.
Next. blurry pictures seems like arkansas stone . when i ask the seller about color ,of the original stone answer it is dirty and i cannot say?
Every single hone at the bay now razor hone?
when i ask the question most of them will say.
you can use them for setting the bevel?
in the other hand they are correct. But We razor honers not looking for 1k stone mostly on bay we are searching for finishing stones.
This is why we need to ask question and make sure what they mean with fine hone description?
Fine hone for knifes is 4k stone for us at least 8k stone.
when you buy barber hone make sure it is in good condition.
as you know all barber hones are old and if they have been kept in wet condition etc their binding materials gets bad. you will not be able to use that stones and hone your blades.
good luck and enjoy straight razor honing.
hope this will help.

What grit ratings should you be asking about when it comes to natural stones like the Japanese stones?

Seems like something a seller could easily make up since in general they dont have grit ratings and there is so much variance in them.

Since I cannot read the stamps, buying japanese stones from untrusted sources is scary to me in general.

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

What grit ratings should you be asking about when it comes to natural stones like the Japanese stones?

Seems like something a seller could easily make up since in general they dont have grit ratings and there is so much variance in them.

Since I cannot read the stamps, buying japanese stones from untrusted sources is scary to me in general.

Ask return policy not the grit when you are trying to buy natural stones.Lets say they say this is suitable for finishing the straight razor. you test it or ask for help from srp member to test for you. if stone doesn't satisfies you then go head send back.
Doesn't matter Japanese or Coticule.

I would stay far away from Japanese stones on eBay. There are dealers who don't show pics of the actual stone they are selling, who don't allow returns, who don't even name the stone, much less give a grit estimate.

There are many reputable sellers on the web, including

the japan blade
aframestokyo
japan-tool
japanese natural stones
etc.

These people have used most of the stones they're selling, will work with you to get you what you need, and will accept returns if something doesn't work out.

Its harder now to use ebay to get nice hones for razors. Everyone wants a charnley forest or an escher and when the seller knows the brand, prices sky rocket. The hones that are listed as razor hones may be good but are so dirty it can be hard to tell what they are so you need to gamble on them.

There's a seller on ebay that always sells jnats and I hear most of the time they're just knife stones, not good for razors, etc. Always ask about jnats.

Maxim at JNS has been good to me.


Thanks for posting this advise, Sham!

Do not trust the colour of stones you see in Ebay pictures. Wrong colours has made me buy hones I didn't want. I've seen a Washita appear green, a green ToS hone appear red etc.

If a seller says he doesn't know whether a hone is synthetic or natural it's usually synthetic.

Excellent thread. It would be very helpful if the seller (on e-bay) was a straight razor user himself, knew how to hone and how to finish up a blade ready to shaving. If they can tell you "I just shaved off that stone", that would be reassuring. alx

I think there are probably more woodworkers buying stones than straight shavers and the definition of "sharp" is a bit different.

Originally Posted by alx

Excellent thread. It would be very helpful if the seller (on e-bay) was a straight razor user himself, knew how to hone and how to finish up a blade ready to shaving. If they can tell you "I just shaved off that stone", that would be reassuring. alx

Thanks for the post Sham! I agree with you, it seems that every sharpening stone for sale on Ebay, no matter how coarse, is now called a razor hone. The new SRP guys have got to be careful and should feel free to contact us via PM for our opinion before they make a bid. We are not perfect but we can help.

We are here to help,