Thanks, guys, for your information and advice--very helpful to me as I enjoy learning about hones, honing, and these hones in particular!

The dimensions of the bbw?/coticule is 2.5" x 5" x 5/8". I've not tried lapping it yet, but I will soon. I'm glad to hear it is probably a good stone.

You know, I've been getting mixed messages on the need to lap the barber hones, but I went ahead and lapped one of the Swatys last night on a sheet of Norton 400 wet/dry sand paper. I think it worked pretty well. I used the pencil line grid method and found that there was a slight high spot in the middle of the hone. I was surprised by this. Anyway, all the pencil marks were gone after about 10 minutes of gentle lapping. I did the lines again and they seemed to go away almost at once. So, I think I'm good to go with some touch-ups!

Thanks, Adrian and Mike, for the useful information. I had the same thought about the Swarty. My suspicion was that the "Swarty" was at one point an attempted imitation of the "Swaty." Could there be any truth to that idea? Anyway, the quality of the stone is highly suspect, i.e. has little pits on the surface and lighter colored flecks in the stone itself.

I will be looking for the pics of the hones you mentioned, Mike. What grit of wet/dry paper should I use to lap the light side of the coticule (or Frictionite)?

Jeremy