Thread: Help Identify This Hone?

I have had this stone for quite a long time, I believe it was one that my parents gave me that they had floating around the house.

It's a wonderful finishing stone, and I have been using it to put a final edge on my knives. It is smooth to the touch, about comparable in feel to 8000 grit micromesh paper that I have.

Is this a barber's hone? It is about 8"x2"x1/2" and has no markings of any kind. It has a very hard feel, much denser than my other stones. Any idea what it is made of? And for the record the chip was there when I got it.

Barber hones are usually not that long and usually have a mark on them, but it could be.

Looking at the broken part, it does look synthetic to me, but I'm not really a hone expert.

There are a very few Barber's hone in the longer lengths,,,
I own a Swaty that looks much like that one, I know there is a Pike version of it because I have seen it, and IIRC Carborundum made a long Barber's Hone also.. There may be others too...
But that is what it looks like from the pics, which limits us hugely in identifying a hone

Just having these brand names is helping immensely with my searching.

It looks kind of like the "unnamed ceramic stone" pictured in this post, although a bit hard to make out in the picture.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/412114-post5.html

Edit - I don't think it's as old as many of the hones pictured there, because of the way the corners are machined.

Are you shure it is a hone. I have seen these before (have a look on that funny edge) but they were tiles. I hope I am wrong.

Well I don't know for certain as I didn't buy it, but it...has to be! It is the way it was presented to me. The surface is very even and uniform (I should have cleaned it before taking a picture, in retrospect). I would think that a tile wouldn't have that high quality of a finish. Either way it does perform very well, I just wanted to know more about it - what it's made of etc. It does well with no lubrication, but sometimes I use oil. I have not tried water yet with it but I might wash it and try that next time I use it.

My vote goes to a barber hone.

On a related note, do you think it would be fine to lap this with say 320 grit sandpaper? If not, then what would you recommend?

You should be fine . go head lap it and test.gl

Originally Posted by TheZ

On a related note, do you think it would be fine to lap this with say 320 grit sandpaper? If not, then what would you recommend?

Great, will do.

Could it be a Thuringian Water Stone?

It looks very similar to the larger one pictured here, even down to the beveled edges:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/605701-post8.html

Here are some more pictures of some, it has a similar shade and sort of "glinty" look to it:





That last one looks nearly identical, I think I have my answer!