Whats under the stone.

[swagman]

I received this 2nd hand Natural Sharpening Stone from the U.K. today. As you will see, the stone was covered in a fair bit of grime and oil build up from previous years of use. The stone measures 8" x 2" tapered in thickness from 1 7/8" - 1 5/8".

The stone as received.





After the stone after being flattened on all sides and both ends using 220 sic powder over a float glass.



Stone after final flattening on float glass with 320 & 400 grit w & d, followed by a wipe over with honing oil.



Stewie;

 

[NazNomad]

Blimey, that's pretty enough to just put on your mantlepiece.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

What was it sold as? What do you think it is?

 

[swagman]

What was it sold as?
Sold as an unidentified sharpening stone.

What do you think it is?
I have a reasonable idea what it is, but I am awaiting further conformation from photo's sent.

Stewie;

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I don't know enough about them to hazard a guess, Stewie.

 

[bugbear]

What was it sold as? What do you think it is?

<Elimination>
Judging by the complete lack of stratification, it's certainly not a slate.
</Elimination>

So probably something novaculite-ish.

BugBear

 

[swagman]

BB; I have forwarded an email with photo's to Henk en Ge Bos.https://bosq.home.xs4all.nl/info%2020m/ ... part_3.pdf

Failing that; I will make contact with http://straightrazorplace.com/hones/

Stewie;

 

[memzey]

Looks a bit like a soft ark but I'm no expert. D_W is though and he might pop up to give an opinion.

 

[D_W]

Looks a bit like a soft ark but I'm no expert. D_W is though and he might pop up to give an opinion.

This one I have no clue about - not very good on one-offs, and it looks like someone bred a dalmore, tam o shanter and soft arkansas. It'll have to go to a real expert vs. someone like me with a bad buying habit, but little formal knowledge about stones.

Like the big size though on thickness.

* How fine is it?
* does it slurry on its own? (guessing no)
* what's the edge like vs the cutting speed?

 

[swagman]

DW; bearing in mind I haven't had the time to test it with an iron, and can pass on the following details;

For the size of the stone, its heavily weighted suggesting its of fine particle.

When worked with water and W & D the slurry was milky white but of very fine particle to the touch.

The surface of the stone after final dressing is very smooth to the touch.

While dressing flat, I would rate it as soft/medium in hardness, compared to that experienced flattening a fine grade Norton Crystolon Stone.

When sprayed with water the stone surface absorbs the water very quickly.

When light grade honing oil is applied to the top surface of the stone, it retains a nice float of oil for a considerable time period.

As regards the photo's, the 3rd photo is after being sprayed with water.

The 4th photo as mentioned, is after honing oil application.

At this stage I am leaning towards suggesting this stone is Tam O Shanter, possibly Scotch Hone or White, but the strata feature that partially crosses the stone is not a common feature from the sample photo's I have seen..

regards Stewie;

 

[D_W]

The dots don't look quite like tam o shanter dots, but it could be an offcut of something with the strata, you never know. I definitely don't know. A fine tam and a Water of Ayr are two of the very few things I haven't bought.

Tams used to not be that expensive, but they became an it stone on razor boards before that group latched on to the escher as the top. Some of that market for those stones is driven entirely by forum frenzy (otherwise, a Y/G hone new in box was about $100 10 years ago, but now it's $600.), and the people collecting the stones lead the charge on that so that they can sell their hones and make money, or so that they don't lose money on something that was a bad buy.

The tams have probably come down some, but getting a big one that's got a label on it that says for razors and scalpels isn't easy to do in the states. Large WOAs with labels are almost non-existent. I think I have a small stone that might be WOA, but I'd have to get a labeled WOA to be able to tell for sure.

 

[swagman]

DW; re the density of the stone, the registered weight from the post office was 1.488 kg.

Hopefully I not breaking forum rules, but their is a small sized White Tam O Shanter Razor Hone on offer currently. Original box and labelling in unused condition. Too small for my needs.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RAZOR-HONE-WH ... Sw4shX8~Ag

Stewie;

 

[Biliphuster]

Sorry, slightly tangential question

Do you find the float glass you use to flatten the stone with SiC goes out of flat itself? I Imagine useing paper on it would prevent dishing but surely the loose grit is going to abrade some glass as well?

 

[D_W]

DW; re the density of the stone, the registered weight from the post office was 1.488 kg.

Hopefully I not breaking forum rules, but their is a small sized White Tam O Shanter Razor Hone on offer currently. Original box and labelling in unused condition. Too small for my needs.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RAZOR-HONE-WH ... Sw4shX8~Ag

Stewie;

I saw that one

I keep my eye out for a chance encounter with a fine tam of good size or a WOA - even though the chance is small, other than the time to time listing of something like a WOA marked for $450 or some other such thing that I won't bite on - nobody does.

Pen knife stones are often labeled for razors, but I haven't found them very nice to use. I can if I have to, but it slows the honing process way down.

 

[swagman]

The sheet of float glass I am using is 1.2m x 0.3m. The key is to use the whole surface of the glass in a figure 8 motion to avoid any localized wear caused by the sic powder. Since I have been using the float glass there is only a slight abrasive feel to the glass. As a value of wear you would be measuring in microns. I would suggest I will get another 12 months of use before needing to flip the glass over to the fresh side. The later use of w & d over a separate float glass guarantees that the stone surface is totally flat, but to be honest the difference between the 2 surfaces can be difficult to tell apart. The other obvious reason for using the W & D is to insure the stone is finely abraded up to end up to 400 grit. Clean up after using the sic powder can get messy if you hit it too soon. The key is to leave the wet slurry for about 45min to an 1hr to allow the slurry to dry into a hard crust. Then its a matter of using a normal paint scraper to loosen 99% + of the solid waste, shovel that in the bin, then a quick wipe over of the top surface with a damp rag and your set for the next time you want to use the float glass.

Hopefully the above info is helpful.

Stewie;

 

[MIGNAL]

Link to my double sided Scotch hone, if it's any use to identifying yours, which I doubt because it's nowhere near as clean:

slate-as-a-sharpening-stone-t88443-15.html

 

[essexalan]

Nice looking stone Stewie be interesting to see how it handles steel. I bought a "natural" similarly sized stone off fleabay and it looks like a block of SiC to me after a clean up, I suppose it could have been a housebrick but it will be useful for grinding bevels and such like. I have got a couple of others as well which do look interesting, will do some pics when I have used them a bit. I do have a slate stone and can not detect any stratification but I have not dressed the ends or sides which would probably show it up.

 

[AndyT]

If you bought it to use, the identity doesn't matter - just spend a few minutes trying it out!

If you bought it to sell, and it's so rare nobody knows what it is, then your best customer will also be interested in your experience of how it performs.

(AFAIK, positive identification to satisfy a mineralogist would need a scanning electron microscope to take some seriously detailed pictures.)

 

[swagman]

Link to my double sided Scotch hone, if it's any use to identifying yours, which I doubt because it's nowhere near as clean:

slate-as-a-sharpening-stone-t88443-15.html

Thanks Mignal. As you mentioned its hard to tell with the discoloration.

cheers Stewie;

 

[swagman]

If you bought it to use, the identity doesn't matter - just spend a few minutes trying it out!

If you bought it to sell, and it's so rare nobody knows what it is, then your best customer will also be interested in your experience of how it performs.

(AFAIK, positive identification to satisfy a mineralogist would need a scanning electron microscope to take some seriously detailed pictures.)

Andy; I did purchase it to use, and no I don't plan to sell it, and yes it matter to me if I can identify it..

If its origins can be traced to Scotland, or Ireland, or Wales, but more importantly not England, that would be extremely pleasing.

regards Stewie;