Thread: Old Oilstone

My father gave me an old oilstone that says 29 Medium on the side, and India underneath. I am trying to figure out if this is appropriate for honing my razor. Is anyone aware of these and can give me some advice? I've read some of the threads about these hones, but I'm still a bit confused about the grit and type of hone. Thanks!

Does it look something like this:
These are for knives and probably range between 3 and 700 grit! For bevel setting you you want at least 1000 grit! For sharpening 4000 and for polishing 6 to and on up! 8000 being considered lowest for finishing!

It depends on what condition your razor(s) is in. If you have one shave ready razor, then definitely don't test that hone with it. If you have a formerly shave ready razor that just needs a touch up, then definitely don't test that hone with it. On the other hand, if you have a razor that isn't shaving at all, or an ebay junker, then you have nothing to lose by trying out the hone in order to simply get a sense of it.

Do you have any other hones? Have you ever honed a razor? If the answer is no to both and if you have a beater razor then you could try the hone out just to see what honing feels like. If you do have other razor hones, be careful to clean the razor off after using the oilstone because you don't want to transfer any of its residue to a water hone.

Because it is a medium hone, there is no chance that it can be used like a barber hone to maintain a razor. If you wanted to go with minimalism, your best hope would be that the oilstone could be used for more aggressive cutting prior to a barber hone to finish. This would be an old style equivalent to Norton 4K and 8K hones.

Originally Posted by Chuckywg100

My father gave me an old oilstone that says 29 Medium on the side, and India underneath. I am trying to figure out if this is appropriate for honing my razor. Is anyone aware of these and can give me some advice? I've read some of the threads about these hones, but I'm still a bit confused about the grit and type of hone. Thanks!

India stones are pretty common traditional oilstones for knives and other tools. If it was a Norton brand medium oilstone it would be in the 250 grit range. far far to coarse for a razor.

Is the hone tan colour on one side and black on the other? If it is it looks like an old oilstone my late uncle used to use for sharpening tools. If so, i'd say its too course for razors.