I have a mystery barbers hone I picked up off the bay before I found SRP.

Now that I have a Swaty, I can tell that this Libertas hone is a finer grit stone. I've done some honing on both now and the Libertas feels smoother to the blade and generates NO swarf (grey stuff) after hours of honing (I really tried some crazy stuff with it and a freebie razor). The Swaty on the other hand will generate a swarf after some time honing (some test honing I did for comparisons sake - I don't think you should ever use a Swaty so much that it generates slurry or anything like that).

This leads me to wonder if the Libertas might be a good finishing/polishing stone, however, I've also noticed that it has some tiny pits in the surface. They're surprisingly deep but you can't feel them with your fingers or see them with a naked eye. I only discovered them after some marker water got on the hone. I wiped it off, but the blue color stayed in the little pits.

So, do I try and sandpaper-lap this down, do I need to pick up a diamond plate to do it, or does it even matter? I can't feel the pits with finger/nail, or while honing, so maybe they're insignificant? But barber's hones are hard and trying to get down to the depths of the pits might be impossible anyway.

Interested in your guys' opinions.

P.S.>>It looks nasty in this pic but all the freckles are not pits, and the fissures are much harder to see under normal light and impossible to feel.



The front side has real pits and chips. I won't/don't/haven't used it.