Car Boot Hone

[bugbear]

Bought and old, boxed, slate hone today (£1.50). It looked quite dry, not oily, and was pretty much flat.

I bought it home, and tried some water on it, which beaded up.

Since the stone looked quite fine, I made an initial test (with an old chisel I keep for the purpose)
using white spirit as the lubricant (which tends to dissolve and remove old oil).

The stone worked nicely, somewhere between a Washita and a Yellow Lake slate
in fineness (I don't like the Yellow Lake stones, they're very slick and give
little feedback).

All in all, I thought this might be a nice stone to fit in the gap between Norton India Fine and Arkansas.

I did a quick google, since the names "Silkstone" and "Cambrock" seemed quite distinctive.

Ah. :shock: :shock: :shock:

It turns out this stone is well known and liked (revered?) in straight razor circles, and one has sold on eBay for £96.00.



Since (TBH) a Washita also fits the gap between Norton India Fine and Arkansas, I think I may sell this stone!

BugBear

 

[thetyreman]

looks like you struck gold there bugbear! that's a huge ROI presuming you'd get £96.

 

[ED65]

Nice buy! I'm on the hunt for a couple of old hones now at car boots, recent threads talking about them have piqued my interest again. Saw a huge lump of a silicon carbide stone week before last that looked like it might be a good one, but it had a big chunk missing from one side so decided to give it a pass.

 

[Woodchips2]

I'll take it off your hands fro £2 bugbear (33% profit!!) but could you gift wrap it please, I need a present for my wife's birthday :lol: :lol: :lol:

Regards Keith

 

[bugbear]

Maybe I can't retire yet; back in Feb a beautiful condition (nigh unused, even the box was clean) one sold for around £40.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SILKSTONE-RAZOR ... 414?_ul=AR

BugBear

 

[adrspach]

Silkstone is nice finisher hone for razors and other fine edged tools.
I do have few examples in my collection and you are right the prices are high and sometimes ridiculously high.
The origin is not known however my educated guess is in Yorkshire.
You have done realy well Bugbear. Enjoy it.

 

[bugbear]

The origin is not known however my educated guess is in Yorkshire.

Slate from Yorkshire?

Cambrian Rock (a "CambRock" product) in Yorkshire?

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg-G ... -Isles.jpg

Doesn't seem likely.

It's still a nice sharpening stone though.

BugBear

 

[adrspach]

I do believe that there is slate in Dronfield but this could be already in Derbyshire.
However Silkstone is not just slate. From some of the documents which I have read few years back there was a layer od slate like rock bellow coal deposit in one of the Yorkshire mines used as sharpening stone. Also there was a mine called Silkstone.
I know that this is just speculation unles I am able to locate the original document and further evidence but so far it is the best what I have.

 

[bugbear]

I do believe that there is slate in Dronfield but this could be already in Derbyshire.
However Silkstone is not just slate. From some of the documents which I have read few years back there was a layer of slate like rock bellow coal deposit in one of the Yorkshire mines used as sharpening stone. Also there was a mine called Silkstone.
I know that this is just speculation unless I am able to locate the original document and further evidence but so far it is the best what I have.

Google and the British Newspaper Archive both threw up the Silkstone coal seam when I was trying to find a source for the stone, but I couldn't convince myself that it was right, given the "Cambrock" reference.

"Silkstone" is such a very good name for a sharpening stone that I would need strong evidence to decide wether it was just an excellent made up trade name, or a reference to a coal seam.

Lacking such evidence, I feel there is no choice but to follow the other information, "Cambrock", which must surely be a reference to "Cambrian Rock".

Do you know of any proper geological evaluation of a known/branded Silkstone? I'd love to see that.

BugBear

 

[adrspach]

It would make us 2. Unfortunately the only 2 people who had that ability are not able to do it anymore. One retired and the other is exploring hones in sky.

 

[JohnPW]

I've seen some pics of the box, they all said 6d, that's 6 old pence, right?

In the 1925 Melhuish cataloge, there are prices for various stones (page 86 on PDF):

Water of Ayr: -/10, 1/3, 1/6, ie 10d, 15d, 18d, I presume the 18d is for the "full" size 200mm/8in stone.
All below are 200mm/8in stones:
"Best Canada stone" , 1/3 or 15d.
"Quick cut emery oilstone", 1/6 or 18d.
Washita no 1 quality, 3/- or 36d.
Silicon carbide, 5/3 or 63d.
India med or fine, 6/3 or 75d.
"Razor hone", 12/6 or 130d (240d in £1), looks like might be Coticule.

OK those are all imported stones except for the Water of Ayr and maybe the "Quick cut emery oilstone". But even the cheapest one, Water of Ayr, was 3 times the price of a Silkstone if the Silkstone was available and was 6d in 1925. If the 6d price was later, say 50s or 60s, then it would have been even cheaper.

So the Silkstone was either a really cheap or really old (pre-20th C) stone!

This one just ended on Ebay for £70:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Silkstone-Bel ... 1677801554
I don't like the spammy "Belgium Blue" in the title though.

 

[bugbear]

I've seen some pics of the box, they all said 6d, that's 6 old pence, right?


In the 1925 Melhuish cataloge, there are prices for various stones (page 86 on PDF):


Water of Ayr: -/10, 1/3, 1/6, ie 10d, 15d, 18d, I presume the 18d is for the "full" size 200mm/8in stone.
All below are 200mm/8in stones:
"Best Canada stone" , 1/3 or 15d.
"Quick cut emery oilstone", 1/6 or 18d.
Washita no 1 quality, 3/- or 36d.
Silicon carbide, 5/3 or 63d.
India med or fine, 6/3 or 75d.
"Razor hone", 12/6 or 130d (240d in £1), looks like might be Coticule.

OK those are all imported stones except for the Water of Ayr and maybe the "Quick cut emery oilstone". But even the cheapest one, Water of Ayr, was 3 times the price of a Silkstone if the Silkstone was available and was 6d in 1925. If the 6d price was later, say 50s or 60s, then it would have been even cheaper.

So the Silkstone was either a really cheap or really old (pre-20th C) stone!

This one just ended on Ebay for £70:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Silkstone-Bel ... 1677801554
I don't like the spammy "Belgium Blue" in the title though.

Good research on the price. (and interesting on the eBay price )

BugBear

 

[bugbear]

I
This one just ended on Ebay for £70:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Silkstone-Bel ... 1677801554
I don't like the spammy "Belgium Blue" in the title though.

I just re-read his description:

Silkstone Belgian Blue Razor sharpening stone / hone
8" X 2" X 1"
Very expensive when new
Flat and in excellent condition

You can see the 6d printed on the box in his photo!! :lol:

BugBear

 

[JohnPW]

I just saw this:

http://www.geologyatsheffield.co.uk/sag ... ng_stones/

Silkstone Rock - used for supporting the railway cutting on the north side of Sheffield Station (from where it was excavated). Many quarries in the Silkstone Rock, such as that at Arbourthorne, supplied readily trimmed, fine-grained sandstone for local use. The Shrewsbury "Hospital" was built with rock from Claywood Quarry just across the road.
Silkstone Rock was also favoured by scythe makers for sharpening stones. Bramley Moor Quarry near Eckington was probably the only operation of any scale, with Staniforth's sickle manufactory being located at Troway nearby.

 

[NazNomad]

I'll take it off your hands fro £2 bugbear (33% profit!!) but could you gift wrap it please, I need a present for my wife's birthday :lol: :lol: :lol:

Not sure that was the stone she had in mind. probably safer with some compressed carbon mounted in a ductile precious metal circle.