Thread: Swaty lines

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Feast your eyes on this archived thread here .

Thanks, interesting read, need to go through it again and follow the links tomorrow, looks like I can be reading for a while.....

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I wonder if the Pike Swaty was made by Pike or by Swaty with the Pike name included ? I once had an Escher Barber's Delight that was labeled (on the box, not the hone) Pike Escher. Thinking Pike wouldn't have risked copyright or trademark infringement so it was probably Swaty making if for Pike ?

Jimmy, I have had the good fortune of finding and purchasing an original NOS Pike Swaty. It had all the orignal stamps and attached labels when I got it. Here is what I have surmised about the pike swaty's.

And I quote: The Pike Mfg. Co Pike, N.H. Sole Agents for America

and the stone itself simply says in 2 lines: Franz Swaty, Marburg Austria

This leads me to believe that it was imported by Pike, but is an original formula swaty from Austria.

But my 3 line, which I got so very lucky in obtaining says:

(in 3 lines) Franz Swaty, Wahring Bei Wien, (AUSTRIA) and is probably the highest grit and hardest stone of all my swaty's. Which is what I am pretty darn sure is the original 3 line swaty.

Now I have several examples of true 'Franz Swaty' hones, only 2 of them show similar composition and hardness/grit. The others are either darker or lighter, smoother or rougher, or showing some other minor dissimilar traits from each other.

I hope that helps someone!!

Mike

oh, and amazing thread you pushed us into Jimmy!!

I read it all the way through and found it very educational. I see our conversation is a rehash of an old thread. Most of the stuff we think we just came up with is old hat by now.

I was about to post up pics of my three line when I saw the other post above has my exact 3 line in it, so I won't. Apparently Swaty hones hold up very well, as all of mine should be pre 1888 according to everything I've just read. Jimmy once said he found it hard to believe, as do I, that these hones are that old.

I mean, how in the heck have they managed to survive for so long. I mean I recently (in the last 3 months) bought my NOS Pike that had never been used. How old do you suppose that one is? Yet it displays the same stamping that the others possess. How can that be?

Just posing more questions to the already answered, heheheh.

Later!!

Mike

Hey Zephyr,

Those lines on your hone, gssixgun can attest as well, that older barbers, back in the day so to speak, would run the edge of their razors across the 'edge' of the hone, or on the side, or even horizontally parallel along a corner, a few places, I assumed to remove the wire that gets created sometimes and to even out the edge before honing it up for use again. I have a hone that has some interesting lines on one side that I believe were caused by this very thing. I saw it mentioned in some forum post somewhere on here as well, it might even have been Glenn that had mentioned it.

Anyway, when I saw those lines in your picture that was the first thing that popped into my head.

TTYL!!

M

A few years ago there was an Escher, IIRC, on the bay that had the last inch and a half with deep crevices an eighth of an inch or so apart ..... valleys rather than lines..... that must have been caused by that kind of 'slicing.'