Thread: Marble Straight Razor Hone?

So I have seen these are around a bunch and have no plans on ever getting one but am intrigued as to how/if they work. I feel, in my understanding of hones, a grit is required to remove steel and create the razors edge....is this wrong? How would smooth glass sharpen steel?
Below is a picture of the device I am talking about....

Every hard surface has a grit. Even in atomic level from the shape of the crystals, there is no surface fine enough. No matter how fine, it is abrasive. The actual marvel is too soft to hone steel, and wear resistant enough not to produce slurry, but I suspect that it can remove the "burr" from an overhoned razor. This can't remove enough steel to be used for honing, and definitely for sharpening.

Can't see it would work well TBH, looks a bit falic though.

Probably more in line with polishing the edge like a finer grit hone. I would never use it. You would have to keep the razor perfectly vertical to the balls.

Marbles, what? I hope I don't get shot for this...

It requires an abrasive mixture between the balls.

It looks like it could double as a sextoy, someone even said it might be useful for doing kegels.

i have a collection of old hones razors etc and use hem as display in my barbershop. does any one know where to find them other than ebay? ive seen red green and blue. are there any other colors?

It's been a while since I've seen one of those, over forty years. They were sold by street vendors seasonally in the streets of Buenos Aires and were meant to sharpen kitchen knives and scissors to razor sharpness. Only once I saw one the charlatans barking about actual shaving implements, this particular one sporting a Gillette blade and running it through a brick, attempting to cut his tongue (mercifully without success) and then "honing" it on this device and cutting paper with it.

I never owned one, but I recall them in blue, green and clear glass.

Mind you, the same charlatans would sell "cold chroming" liquid and test it on coins out of your pocket... which sadly returned to their former non-chromed status within a few hours. Just enough to make a few sales and bail, I guess. Based on this alone I'd say this device is useless for razors, and probably close to it for knives and scissors too.

As to how they "work"...My WAG would be that the working principle is that they flatten the edge between the glass balls, somewhat restoring the semblance of an edge. It could work too, if the balls were hard enough and held together with enough force.


Marcos

Originally Posted by Piet

It requires an abrasive mixture between the balls.

Sounds painful...

Looks to me like they could cause damage to the blade . I wouldn't use it on my razors .

some think they realine the edge. but take any two circles that are tangent to each other and any angle that is greater then 0 degress (razors being about 16 degrees, and you will find the faces of the angle will contact the circles away from the point at which they are tangent and the vertex of the angel contacts nothing. no action occurs at the edge. these devices do not work to my awareness, and cannot work to my reasoning. someone who has successfully used one is free to correct me however.