Thread: what is this strange hone

I juste got 4 hones from a yard sale 2 are silicon carbide ,carborundum probably, the two others after I lapped 80 years of crud off them are yellow natural stone that are very soft and cut quite well sow would I find what they are ? can any body give me any help as I'm stumped as where to look

How about Photos?

For something like that, you really need to take pictures and share em. show em wet, dry and with slurry pls

I took some pics

here are some pics

Looks like Hindostan judging from the coloration and silt layered banding on the side. I have one very similar in color, except my banding is much thinner, looks almost like wood grain from the side.

It should be a hard stone and a finisher similar to a hard Ark. They were used with oil, but I lapped mine with Silicon Oxide and Wet & Dry and use with soapy water and Smiths honing solution. Lap it to a high grit 600 to 1K. Do not use a DMT, it will eat the DMT.

What is the stria like off the stone?

Hone a razor with your highest grit Synthetic stone, then mark the blade at the half point between the toe and heel then hone the toe half with the Hindostan holding the mark on the edge of the stone. Compare the stria between the two halfs under magnification.

thanks very much it is a strange stone and the softest stone I have come across it makes its own slurry when used do they make soft HINDOSANS ? Igot it in a barn sale in N.H its old probably close to ? 100 it seems to be a water stone but they didn't have them domestically then did they? what did they use besides arks back then ? the estate that it came from was huge the owners hade a whole mountain back in the day maybe its an import ? I have never seen anything close it got me intrigued what and how . it cuts great the slurry looks like mustard and when dry feels like clay . thanks so much for your reply please help me solve this .

the stria is very pronounced very similar to my fine grit side of my carborundum silicon carbide combination stone

I agree with euclid that this is a hindostan from just looking at the pictures...in general these stones should be hard as their nature beeing is a Sandstone....so that does not really fit in this thinking....as the Pictures are not really the best i also thought on a kind of special coticule/deep rock coticule...something like this here f.ex...as beeing described as a soft stone i would more think on a Coticule this type then a Hindostan..
http://www.tomonagura.com/coticules/les-latneuses.html
http://www.tomonagura.com/_Media/les...-1_med_hr.jpeg

Thats my Hindostan....the layers are called "Tidal Varves"
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2869/1...fcf555_b_d.jpg

whos interested can check this Site here....a bit History about the old Town Hindostan which was overtaken by some serios illness or desease (pestilence) so that the complete town was abandoned....today it is a ghosttown its like the town never existed...just the old tombstones are left. Some of the old tombstones are made of Hindostan whetstone from the old quarries...
http://spydersden.wordpress.com/2012...own-hindostan/

And here:
http://saveagrave.net/whetstone

Hindostans can be soft too. The soft ones are coarser. Coarse naturals can be useful too