Other patents tell us about hones.

mainaman asked what other patents are out there.

This patent No. 2,683,338 from 1953 makes an interesting
observation....

RAZOR CONDITIONER - Google Patents

The interesting observation is that the finest
hone author of the patent knew of was a 159
grit hone. His patent was to use a flat steel
plate to further perfect the edge.

I think Carborundum razor hones are older than this and finer than
this comment but the fact that this was his view of the state of the
art is so far from where we are today is astounding. Of course
Coticule and the Echers go way back and are finer.

In a different patent (Number ????) there was a magnet hidden
in the hone to maintain a gentle constant pressure.

I wonder if Lynn's modular strop works so well
for so many because of the magnets he uses to permit
the swapping/ changing of media. :hmmm:

I wouldn't take the existence of any single patent to be significant with respect to state of art. If you go through the patents over the years you will find not only terrific stuff but much really scatterbrained and Rube Goldberg things that are totally useless and have to applicability to the real world.