Thread: old hone

I got this old hone from my grandmother today that belonged to her father. It looks like hard black arkansas stone and is the size of a pack of cigarette papers. Apparently he went real old school with it and spit on it then used that to hone his straight or the knife he also shaved with. Anybody got any ideas, I dont think it would sharpen anything that weel anymore.

Kinda small to use on a straight razor.

Thats what I thought, but she insisted thats what he used. Im not gonna even attempt, its so small you could injure yourself even trying to use it.

The Samson company hone is a new one on me. Are you sure it's a natural stone? They made artificial stones since around 1900 and it is possible for all of our grandfathers to have used them. The size of the stone is problematic for razor honing but I use those size stones in tight places where I can't use a belgian. My collection of hard arkansas stones includes a number of triangular and other shaped stones of very small cross section. I'd save it for using in those situations. One example would be the part of a knife that is adjacent to the shoulder of the choil. It's typically not sharpened very well and often shows coarse grind marks. These size stones can be held between the fingers and used there.

Howard