Sharpening stone?

[Keith Szczepanski]

I picked this up at a flea market thinking it's a fine stone but now I'm not so sure. There doesn't seem to be any wear to it all. Can anyone help me ID this?

[Mel Fulks]

That's a "barber's stone" . Man made and used mostly on straight razors. Often used for thinning down a bevel more than
actually sharpening. Many different brands of them.

[Doug Hepler]

I have another brand of barber stone (Norton) with a red side about 300 grit and a black side about 8000 - 10000 or even finer. It seems to be finer than my 8000 grit ceramic stone. (Those are just guesses from the scratches/polish they make.)

Of course, there are lots of brands and grits, but it's possible that your black stone and mine have similar grit sizes. If so you made a good buy. The black side of my stone is great for final honing of chisels and plane irons before I go to rouge. Its worth a lot more than $1.00 to me.

[Keith Szczepanski]

Actually, the stone is a deep red and both sides are identical. Would this be used dry? i

[Mel Fulks]

Look on Ebay "ceramic barber's hones". Always a bunch there. They are usually used with water.

[Doug Hepler]

Keith

Sorry, it looked black to me in the photo. I would still assume that it s a very fine stone, since straight razors tend to pull if they are not polished. You can get a rough idea of the grit size by comparing the scratches it makes to the scratches made by wet-or-dry sandpaper.

You should lubricate it when honing or it may fill up with swarf. I'm not a straight razor aficionado but I believe that barbers sometimes used lather to lubricate. I use water or Windex diluted with water on stones that are fine enough to stay wet. Otherwise I use soapy water or honing fluid

Doug