Thread: who can tell me about this barbers hone?

So I went to about 7 different antique stores today looking for a barbers hone today and this is what I turned up it is a "wester bros DE-FI" combo hone. I only paid $10 so good or bad there's no regrets. I uploaded a couple of pictures of it but they are taken with my cell phone and there for not very clear. The back side of the hone is a yellow/green color and feels coarser that the front. The front is a dark blue/ grey/ black and feels much smoother. I lapped both sides first on 240 then on 320 grit sand paper mounted on a polished marble tile. Just wondering if a can get a little input on the hone, someone that can tell me definitively which side is coarser and what I expect out of the it, will this be sufficient for touching up a razor back to shave readiness or should I be going from this to a pasted strop? Any info would be greatly appreciated


Cheers
-Omid

More than likely the hone is of the same grit. I didn't see a side profile picture of the stone, but just by looking at the photo's provided I would say that one side was used (smoother) and the other side wasn't (rougher factory finish). No matter, looks like you got a good barbers stone at a good price and had a good time looking for it...good job. Good enough for ya...good!

320 grit is rather coarse. I would lap it up to 1000 grit minimum.
To find out which side is finer just take a dull razor and perform 10-15 laps on each side and you will "feel" it right away. This hone should be used to touch up an edge that is starting to dull a bit. It should be followed by the CrOx for best results. Please don't ask about the grit size, there is no way to determine that. Just try it and see what the results are. 5-15 laps are usually the recommended number of laps to start with. Do more if necessary and use water or shaving lather when honing to help keep it clean.

Hope this helps,