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.