Thread: Help Identifying a Barber's Hone

I just bought this barber's hone and I can't find any information about it, so I was hoping someone here would be able to tell me anything they may know.



It is markend "El Timbre No. 1."

Does anybody know the approximate grit on this? I know it feels smoother than my Norton 8K, but I am sure that can be misleading.

Thanks.

I know nothing about it. Yours is the first Cuban/Argentinian barber hone I've seen. From the look of it though, I'd guess that its composition and performance is comparable to the many other hones that copied the prestigous Swaty hones.
Grit rating is meaningless for a barber hone, as its function is dependent upon several factors, not just grit size. Just a few strokes on it should be all you need to maintain your razor forever.

Originally Posted by jminkoff

I just bought this barber's hone and I can't find any information about it, so I was hoping someone here would be able to tell me anything they may know.
....
It is markend "El Timbre No. 1."

Does anybody know the approximate grit on this? I know it feels smoother than my Norton 8K, but I am sure that can be misleading.

Thanks.

The only way to test the grit is to polish a bit of steel
on the unknown barber hone and compare with a known
like your 8K Norton.

The steel need not be a razor.

Barber hones run from about 4k to 10k but
because of the way they are made they can
hone finer than a grit measurement might indicate.

Scrub it clean with something like Comet cleanser
mostly for sanitary reasons and then audition it against
the known grit hones you have.

If you lap it it will hone differently than it did.
The polish from use is one of the reasons
that barber hones work so well so be measured
in your need/ want to lap it flat.

And it is nearly impossible to 'feel' a grit finer than
4K or so. They all feel smooth at that point.