Thread: Buying Vintage Hones?

Originally Posted by cosperryan

So I'm looking at buying a hone and I really don't feel like spending 100+ dollars on a hone but I don't want to get a piece of crap. Do you think it would be wise to purchase a vintage hone from ebay. I know that I would most likely have to lap it several times and make sure that it is even and flat. Has any one ever bought an old vintage hone off ebay with any success and not just for aesthetic purposes.

Very broad question that I just highlighted.
What type of vintage hone or hones on Ebay interest you?
I have purchased over "60" vintage hones on Ebay over the past 3 years,,,,,Carborundums, Nortons, barber hones, Welsh hones (possibly vintage?? quarries no longer operational), a coticule; all were successful/great buys. Yes, many were bought for collection purposes, not everyday use, but all were great condition. Any of them can be used today, as well as they could have been used at the time of their manufacture.

If you want a good/great everyday hone, get the Norton 4/8 as suggested.

Well I was looking at an old barbers hone the seller said that it was 10k. It was priced at about 20 bucks the last time I saw the bid and there were more similarly priced. I think for the money I am still going to get one and if it doesn't pan out then I still have a hone for the kitchen knives or other things. However for the older "waxy" strop, that definitly sounds interesting. I am new to this but the one thing I do feel confident in is my stropping. I bought a cheap pakistani razor to practice on while I did my research and saved up for my Dovo. I pretty much made it my goal to get that crappy razor shave ready with a strop even though I knew that was impossible I figured if I have to strop my razor every day then a lot of practice wont hurt.

There are a few of barber hones brands out there that might rate close to 10K, but that is a bit high for most barber hone ratings. The barber hones that grit rate that high, would cost you a bit more that $20.00; something to think about.

If you are interested in a vintage hone less than 100 USD a Swaty would be your best choice. There are plenty around on ebay, some of them in good or nearly new condition. You may need to lap it which takes some elbow grease. Swatys may not be the finest hones around but with a chromox and plain leather strop they are all you need. They cut reaonably fast but are no good for setting a bevel.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ml#post1148199


This might be a good spot to start reading about your options

Barber hones are ok, but japanese waterstones have them beat in every way.

Originally Posted by eod7

Barber hones are ok, but japanese waterstones have them beat in every way.

Except on price, which is the main factor according to OP
(And many japanese water stones that are cheaper than $100 do not beat many barber hones in performance.)
I have several barber hones sitting on my porch as doorstoppers too - so it's not like you just pick one on the cheap and it simply works great. I haven't looked on ebay in a couple of years but last time the swatys weren't much cheaper than norton 4k/8k and are less flexible, not considering the immense pain to lap them if there are even small chips.

But yeah, one can get lucky and get really good barber hone and spend very little money on it. Or one could get a dud.

Well Glen, thank you for that thread on the hones. I am curious as to how you apply the newspaper though. No matter what though I am still going to get some reliable hones like say either a norton 4k/8k or Naniwa. Those are two brands that I have just seen over and over again. I am not, at this time, doing any restoration. I just want to be able to take my one and only razor from not shave ready to shave ready. It came to me shave ready and I just want to be able to make it shave ready again when it comes time. I don't feel the need to, again at this time and I keep saying this because I'm sure later in life I will probably start to buy more razors than I could use like some of you guys do haha, restore or what ever and the razor that I did buy was a brand new dovo and shouldnt need a new bevel for a long time. Also, that leads me to another question. If you hone without tape shouldn't that in theory keep you from having to reset the bevel as long as you maintain the original bevel angle because won't the spine wear away at an equal rate with the blade thus maintaining blade geometry, atleast until you start getting high up into the hollow?

Newspaper can be folded into a hanging strop, or folded and laid along the edge of a table


Funny you should ask about Tape and angles

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...-theories.html


There are the actual measurements, that way it dispels all the "Theories"

Oh no, I wasn't saying that taping will ruin the razor or anything like that. I remember reading a thread similar to the one you linked and the person did the math just like you did and basically said that a taped razor would last 2-3 generations at least. What I was wondering was if both spine and edge are both being worn by the same hone at the same time then you should never have to worry about a bevel reset thus all you need as long as you don't ding the blade or nick it or whatever, is a refresher stone.