Vintage Hone, Was my great Grandads, And predates him by some years.

[Iceni]

Hello this is my first post on here and I would like some help identifying a hone I was given after my Great Grandad died in the early 1990's. The stone was given to him already used by his father (my great great Grandad) I also assume he did not purchase the stone new as he was not a wealthy man. When my great Grandad died he was 99 years old born in 1895. So as a rough estimate I would place the stone as been at least 150 years old, perhaps more.

When I got the stone it was in pretty bad shape, And sat for many years as a knife sharpening stone in my old tools. It was never very good at sharpening knives. It is both too hard too slow to take away material, and at the time it was badly in need of lapping having about 5mm of wear giving it a heavy bow in the center.

Anyway I decided it was time the stone was made flat a few years ago. I started with 180 grit sand paper. The stone destroyed the sand paper. So I moved up to 180 grit wet and dry. Getting the stone flat took about 30 sheets. Then I used a couple more sheets of 400 grit to take out the scratch pattern.

The stone is stupidly hard.

It seems that it is a fine razor hone, And so I decided to pick up a cheap straight razor to see how well it works in it's real role. It's not a fast stone, But the edge comes up very polished.

I would love it if someone could tell me what they think the stone is. I'm planning on picking up a decent razor for Christmas, Using this stone as a finisher I'll probably need something with a little more bite to work with it. Without knowing where it sits in terms of polish I'm at a loss.














Many thanks.