Thread: Help identify a flea market hone...

Hi all,

I'm new to straight razor shaving but seem to have caught the bug. Haven't actually shaved with a straight yet as I'm still working on acquiring the equipment but I came across this hone at an outdoor flea market today and couldn't resist it.

The seller told me it was a stone to sharpen razors with like the kind a barber uses. It doesn't seem to have any markings of any kind that I could see.

I'd appreciate any help with identifying it and its qualities and potential uses. I haven't read the section on the wiki about hones yet (will most likely be getting to that tomorrow) so if the information is there already please feel free to ignore this thread.

I've attached a picture of it to this post and can provide other angles/sides if they'd help any.

Thanks in advance for any/all help,

-KreyZe

Hard to say what it might be from the pic. It needs a bit of cleaning to get to the stone so it can be looked at.

clean it up, or better lap it good with sandpaper and a flat surface
and make a picture with better light, and a picture where we can see the slurry the stone makes.

What does the stone smell like, when it is being lapped?
Naturals hones often have a distinct smell when lapping

I have a reddish barber's hone that I've been told may be made from iron oxide. For what it's worth, the pitting in the surface of yours looks very similar. Rub the heck out of an edge or corner on something rough, then see if the cleaner material underneath appears dark red in natural lighting.

Welcome to SRP. I can't tell what you have there from the photo. If you're going to start shaving with a straight your best bet is to send it out to have it honed by a honmiester. This will give you something to shave with and to compare to later if you get some ebay or flea market razors to practice honing on. You can find someone here in member services.

There is an archived thread here on barber hones with some photos that may give you something to go with. Other than that check out the SRP Wiki here for tutorials on all things related to straight razor shaving and maintenance.

Thanks you all for all the advice and information. I'm a bit swamped in general so I probably wont be able to read up on and act on all the honing related information for a couple of weeks.

I do intend on sending my first razor out to a honemeister from this forum prior to starting to shave with it but had just come across this hone unexpectedly and decided to get it as a learning experience. That, and it seems cool.

-KreyZe