timwcic
"Look what I found"
Not as safe as you may think. My tentacles how long reach. I just visited Round Top for a few days. Brisket, Shiner Bock, and Bluebonnets, YEAH
What is your most recent “unbelievable find/deal” that you came into on hone(s)?
- Thread starter HoneThis
- Start date
I see you're also a man of culture Tim, not just geological procurement extraordinaire! The hill country is amazing this time of year.
timwcic
"Look what I found"
It looks like Norton repurpose a box that was for a India Stone. A product sticker was placed over the original printing of the India for the Razor Hone. Either way, I won’t complain
- Thread starter
- #44
I have a question about these… I hat is the difference between the one in his picture and one that is identical EXCEPT for having Pike’s Engraved in the hone in the black side. Oddly enough, despite saying Pike’s on it, the original box it was sold in says “Norton Combination Hone”.
Is it also good for axe sharpening? I’m not concerned about re-sale value as it’s not something I’d want to sell, even if I could get an axe guy’s wife for it.
I dunno, I might take a lumber Jack's wife for a synth stone, my coticules do well on axes. I don't know how my wife would feel about it but, there's lots of work to do around here.
Id say it is the same type of stone, from around when Norton bought out Pike. They would have gotten a bunch of Pikes inventory that they would have wanted to sell before retooling the machines to put a Norton stamp on the hone.
@Legion I bet it might be even slower wearing. I think that norton aquired pike and other companies purely on the basis that they had premium tier quality control and were dominating the market. It shows in the product and it shows through different eras of production. It's why I got much more inquisitive over coticules once I got my hands on an old one. Perception is everything but work always tells the truth. Over mined rocks sold commercially were to shelf because *everyone* had to break their backs for money and most were slow to give it up easily. Marketing works, but when everything is hand tools, from top to bottom, the proof is in the pudding.
I agree that some of the old Pike stuff is better than some of the old Norton. But perhaps that little extra Pike put in contributed to the fact that it eventually became more profitable to sell out to Norton.
Anyway, I'd bet this stone and the Norton that sets the axe guys heart a flutter are one in the same, except for the stamp and the modern resale value. Barber hones are made to a pretty specific recipe.
- Thread starter
- #49
That is what I thought, as I couldn’t imagine them being different, especially since the box being labeled Norton suggests what you said.
I saw someone saying something about how the “Norton” etched one stands on its own and that a Pike one isn’t the same/as good. It sounds like speculation to me, nor do I really care either way.
The same person was saying the reason the particular Norton engraved ones are best/rare/valuable is because Norton lost the “recipe” to make it and could never replicate it after trying. Lol, idk.
Yeah, sounds iffy, but I have never owned either so cant say.
I am fairly confident that there are dozens of old barber hones out there that would do the same job on an axe. Those Nortons sell for so much because pro axe racing guys are superstitious, simple creatures, and are prepared to pay if they think something gives them a magical advantage over the competition.
timwcic
"Look what I found"
I have a few combination hones but never compared to a N.R.H. They do look the same and it might be using up old inventory before making a new model. Only a guess, more info lost to time. I do agree with @Legion it’s probably a superstitious tradition that keeps the value of the Norton and also the Frictonite high
- Thread starter
- #52
It would actually be relatively simple to get definitive proof and confirm/bust this myth once and for all. All we need is one of these: Olympus DPO-2000 Delta Professional Alloy XRF Analyzer - https://www.aaatesters.com/olympus-dpo-2000-xrf-analyzer-dpo2000-olympus-delta.html
A measly $20k gets us a nice refurbished one that would tell us the list of substances (along with ratios) that make up the hone.
Jamie and Adam would be proud.
- Thread starter
- #53
It’s a handheld XRF Scanner gun. You literally point it at something like soil, produce, minerals, ore, meteorites, any piece of metal/alloy, etc… and it tells you exactly what and how much of it (as percentages that add up to 100%) immediately.
It’s really really cool. I was lucky enough to have used them a handful of times. It does something like bombard atoms with X-ray fluorescence causing orbital electrons to shed or something. That gives of a energy signature that is specific to every individual thing that is present in the sample.
So it would give a list of the different things that make up the hone, along with how much of each one is there.
Maybe we can call the company and tell them we are thinking of ordering 100 units, but want a loaner device for a few weeks in order to determine if it’s what we want. Lol
It’s really really cool. I was lucky enough to have used them a handful of times. It does something like bombard atoms with X-ray fluorescence causing orbital electrons to shed or something. That gives of a energy signature that is specific to every individual thing that is present in the sample.
So it would give a list of the different things that make up the hone, along with how much of each one is there.
Maybe we can call the company and tell them we are thinking of ordering 100 units, but want a loaner device for a few weeks in order to determine if it’s what we want. Lol
timwcic
"Look what I found"
It’s been a while, before pandemic, that I found a Coticule on CL. Found this by a motivated seller. It has a dish but the rounded bottom compensate
I love this. Id die for some of these probably
. So ill ask an opinion here. I have the shapton kuromaku series 1k,2k,5k, and a naniwa gouken kagayaki 12k. Im looking for an 8k should i go shapton kuromaku. Naniwa gouken fuji 8k or something else? Wondering whats best in my setup. Ive been told the shaptons are rated higher than they are so im Unsure. Or should i look for something vintage? Ill post a pic of this vintage strop back style hone i got recently when im home
. So ill ask an opinion here. I have the shapton kuromaku series 1k,2k,5k, and a naniwa gouken kagayaki 12k. Im looking for an 8k should i go shapton kuromaku. Naniwa gouken fuji 8k or something else? Wondering whats best in my setup. Ive been told the shaptons are rated higher than they are so im Unsure. Or should i look for something vintage? Ill post a pic of this vintage strop back style hone i got recently when im homeId call that a la petite blanche all day long, what say you Tim? That yellow line is hard to miss.
I don't think that vintage, yellow line vein is LPB. LPB have more of a blue blob line, not that straight thin yellow one.
This stone is of the same variety as Tims, I believe, up to and including the annoying dishing.
LPB bottom
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This is lpb from ac has a line, is what made me think that. I've got at least one of the old ones that had the yellowish blob lines at the transition(and on the bbw too).I don't really pay too much attention to the names, I but them by looks and by my count that looks like a real good one. Hopefully anyway.
timwcic
"Look what I found"
LPB would be on top of the short list. The line is consistent around the perimeter. This stone is a four layer sandwich. The BBW has a dual layer with the line running in the inner layer. Did not see until I gave it a bath. Haven’t decided if I will lap it flat or not
WOW, that had the dog snot dished out of it
Yeah. I’m still deciding what to do about it. If it didn’t have a perfect 9” runway of BBW on the other side it would already be two slanty 4.5” stones.
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