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

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.

can you show the sides of the stone?

without more pictures, I am going to go with "some form of Noviculite"

Im pretty certain it is a hard black arkansas. Those specks in it look like mine and I like mine alot. You can use it as a finisher but needs to be dressed higher than 400 grit. Theyre ridiculous to lap amd once you get it lapped your great great grandkids might be the next ones to have to lap it. I dressed mine up to about 8k (I used my coticule which probably wasnt necessary and maybe didnt do anything) I then took a nice chisel and just went to town with it and now its nice and reflective. Not good this way for knives but works well on my razors. Eleblu knows better on how to dress these stones than I do. Make sure you use oil on it or smiths honing solution or glycerin. It is a slow slow slow stone so if you want to use it for razors be aware and prepared for that.

If on the other hand I am wrong then ignore what I said

I think regardless of whether you can get this stone to razor-honing smooth, it's a priceless heirloom. Oh, I'm sure that someone could put a dollar amount on it and it wouldn't even be that high; but let's face it, this has been in your family three generations and still going strong.

My recommendation is that you either follow cosperryan's advice and try to get it to razor quality or learn to sharpen knives. That stone deserves to be used.
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Those inclusions look identical to ones in my oldest arkie. It's a translucent. One doesn't see them in the recently mined stones. The standards for grading them must have changed and perhaps those inclusions are carefully sorted out.

Originally Posted by Oakeshott

Those inclusions look identical to ones in my oldest arkie. It's a translucent. One doesn't see them in the recently mined stones. The standards for grading them must have changed and perhaps those inclusions are carefully sorted out.

+1 for the translucent somewhat visible on the last pic.

I'll get the stone honed up a little this weekend on some finer grade wet and dry so I can see if it'll hold a more polished face, If it does I'll keep moving it up. I do have a glass block and some powders that I use for other things so if it gets up to that grade I'll be very impressed.

The pictures are a little misleading I think the stone is quite green in natural light, so once I get the face sharpened I'll put up some more images.

I'll be defiantly picking up a better straight razor for use with this stone, I have my eye on a nice Friodur Henkels wedge for Christmas, I think this stone should prove more than useful for what I have planned.

Edit:

Perhaps the glass block was a bad idea, The hone is harder than the glass

I've given it a 1200 grit wet and dry then run over it with CROX on a felt wheel.... I never knew this stone had metal particles in it and black spots!


I'll put up some images of the new surface tomorrow. It's getting a glossy finish as I work it.

Right I have an update in words to add about this stone so far.

I was very wrong with the previous post in regard to how close to finished the face was. The stone just keeps polishing more and more. ATM I can see the reflection of the light above me in it while I work. And if I hold it at the correct angle it's reflecting text from the monitor.... Worst of all I don't think it's done yet. I've spend about 3 hours with a chissel, And then I decided that I may as well put my el-cheapo razor on it, I then realised I was using too much pressure on the el cheapo and I had messed up the grind, making it shorter than it should be. So I then re-honed the razor edge just using this stone and no edge pressure..... It took about 4 hours.

The stone now feels sticky when your honing and your angle is set correctly. I think it's probably due to water suction. I can still feel parts on the face where the blade feels a little rougher. Those parts will hone in I think.

All I can say so far is wow, I thought I had some low grit very slow hone. I was planning on perhaps scrapping it, and picking up a norton 3K/8K stone.... I might still pick up the norton, But I think this stone is a keeper.

Like I said earlier, that sounds like a surgical black to me. I have one and love it as a finisher. They're slow but they work wonders. I would say that you have it polished enough when you can see text reflecting off it. Thats about where I have mine at and I think its a good compromise between speed and finishing ability. The smoother the stone gets the slower it works.