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Is there a way to approximately determine a hone's grit size if there are no markings on it?
I have an old barber's hone that I'd like to use. It's ceramic, I think.
Can you just feel it and compare it to the feel of the Norton or Japanese water stones?
I've seen some mention of slow-cutting stones vs. "efficient" stones. Could a finer hone feel coarser for some reason?
You can't really tell by feel what the grit is. Arkansas stones for example feel very very smooth, but are actually a very coarse grit (about 1000 grit). This is because the abrasive particles are packed very closely together, and because of this they make shallow grooves in the razor and hone very slowly. Arkansas stones can be (and have been) used to hone razors to shaving sharp if you're willing to spend some time at the job, but because of the large grit the edge doesn't feel very good on your skin when you shave. The norton 4k hone is so popular because it cuts very fast even though it's a pretty fine grit.