Thread: look what I found in the attic

Today I was looking for some long lost shop vac attachments that I finaly figured out what were for. I found an old box from 11 yrs ago when I moved to the then new to me farmhouse. Appearently the wife didn't think we needed this box of stuff. In the bottom I found my grandfathers razor hones. To anyone that dosen't know my grandfather was a barber and cut hair on a carrier in WWII. I have most of his razors but never knew what had happend to his hones. Well in my youth when My grandmother died I had appearently took them and put them in a box. Now 20 years later it is like Christmas finding them. The first I suspect to be a Coticule possible a natural combo but the blue is in poor shape it is thick though. It measures 7 3/4 x 1 7/8 tapering to 1 1/2 and 1 1/4 thick at the thickest. The other a barber hone 2 x 5 1/2 branded Lapart. Tell me your thoughts on the suspect coticule.

Don

Nice find!!

That coticule looks nice! The bottom is probably a BBW, but it is a little worse for wear on the bottom. But the blue side is very thick, so you could always lap it down enough so it's a nice flat surface, and still have a bunch of blue stone left. The coticule looks good, I'm sure after a nice cleaning/lapping it'll be good to go!

The barber hone looks like it's in good condition, you'll have to give her a go!

didn't they used to glue BBW rather than slate to the bottom of yellows for stability? My guess is that BBW was glued on and was never meant to be used for honing, but rather was just the stabilizer/handle. But if you can lap it down to honeability why not.

Congrats!

I agree the blue side probably wasn't meant to be used and mainly there for stability, but I don't believe it was glued on. The joint line is too wavy. I think it's a natural combo.

The hone being almost 8" long, you needn't lap as deep as to correct the diagonal cut. Just lap it to get rid of the smaller scratches and you'll still have about 5" to hone.

Originally Posted by loueedacat

didn't they used to glue BBW rather than slate to the bottom of yellows for stability? My guess is that BBW was glued on and was never meant to be used for honing, but rather was just the stabilizer/handle. But if you can lap it down to honeability why not.

Judging by the seam I would guess that it come from the ground in one piece.

Don

Its a beauty! I love getting vintage coticules and experimenting with them.

Sweet find. I agree that the combo is most likely natural. If I stumbled upon that, I would probably lap the blue till I got a flat surface. If that means the whole stone is flat, so be it; if it means the edges are still recessed (as shown), that would be fine by me.

Have fun playing with those rocks.

Now why can't I find things like that in my attic. All I find are dead bugs.

Took a little break from the log house today to lap my new treasure. I took it down with the DMTC. I rubbed on the blue side and got a nice purple slury so I must have a natural combo. Before I take out the gouge in the blue I think I will look for a DMTX. I think the 320 would be a little slow to take off 1/8" of hone. Here is a pic of the yellow.

Don

Originally Posted by loueedacat

didn't they used to glue BBW rather than slate to the bottom of yellows for stability? My guess is that BBW was glued on and was never meant to be used for honing, but rather was just the stabilizer/handle. But if you can lap it down to honeability why not.

+1, although I don't know if it's glued on or naturally bonded.

They didn't care about the Blue in the old days. Some Coticules were naturally bonded to Blue, hence it was the obvious choice for gluing Coticule to that came from the heart of a layer. There's plenty of Blue available.

I do think, I might see a nice "downstroking" groove into that Blue back.

Great find!

bart.