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It seems a nice hone in mint conditions
you could try to keep it with a snipe up to 20 $
Hard to tell from the picture - when buying less common hones its all a crapshoot.
That being said, I got an Austrian "Apart" hone - made in Marburg (which I think is where Swaty's were made) for $11. Its a great finishing hone. I also got an American Swaty clone that's very nice (not quite as good as the Apart hone) for $11 from the same vendor.
This is all to say that there are lots of nice finishing hones that are similar to Swaty's, but you just need to take a chance. If you'r patient, there are good deals to be found. $15 is worth a gamble, $25 seems to high - unless someone else chimes in with an opinion of this specific hone (IMHO at any rate!).
Swaty's are overrated. IMO they are well-known mostly because they are both easily identified and very common. If you're recommending a barber hone you can't tell a guy to get a "thick reddish squarish one" even if that's your finest barber hone, and you can't tell him to get a "brownish rectangular one about 4x1" even if that's your second best barber hone, and you can't tell him to get a "roundish rectangular one with one brown side and one black side" even if that's your third best barber hone (and it is - comparable to my boron carbide paddle). What you can tell him is to go get a Lithide from Tilly or get a Swaty from ebay, simply because these are hones that reasonable numbers of people have had some success with and, and these hones are readily available and readily identifiable (lithides because Tilly owns them all, and Swatys because of the convenient stamping).
I have a Lithide from Tilly and with all the little gold flecks in it it's rougher than January 1st or the Seis De May !! :cool:
That thing is like trying to finish on asphalt.
The info said it should lap up like glass but mine always looks like sandblasted glass.
Or the moon. :mad:
So the advice is to just buy it and take a chance?? :shrug: