Yes, the crazing was the dead give-away. Often a chipped out spot on a hone will help to reveal that it is a synthetic.
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So as you can see the water just beads off.
Would it be a two sided hone?
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Yes, it is a two sided hone.
Water beading is common on barber hones. If you wet the hone and then just touch a lathered brush to the water on the hone, that should be enough to break the surface tension of the water to allow it to spread uniformly on the hone, and that is your goal. Many people use lather on a hone but I prefer to use just lightly lathered water on the hone.
Ok thank you.
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The bubbles in the top image of post #12 make it look like a man made barber hone.
It might be a darn good one...
Do not flatten or mess with the surface just a bit of thin or thick lather and water
and a small number of hone strokes as soon as the edge begins to tug and does
not refresh nicely on a strop.
Barber hones have been made in many ways. At the time the best classification of
mud, clay and grit involved water and was not very good by modern hone standards.
the surface slip was the surface to hone on ... deeper by a millimeter and they could be sandy.
Its a Barber hone and most likely a Panama Hone. They existed with in different Versions. One with two synthethic sides and another Version with this patterned side...the discussiom was always if this is a type of natural stone or probably petrified wood...iam not sure / not convinced on that theory....
I've not seen a Panama hone with that patterning. I've only seen it on a Punjab hone.
I've got several Panama hones, but unfortunately none of them have that patterning. Then again, the hone that I do have with that patterning does not have embossing so that might very well be a Panama. I will have to compare dimensions at least. Thanks.