The 12,568th hone identification thread ;-)

[mattluthier]

Well, I've come across a sharpening stone and I'm not sure what it is. Any ideas? It has layering in it like a Hindostan but the color seems to be different than the Hindostan pictures I've seen. Could it be a Hindostan? It's sort of a grey color. I took pictures of it with a washita on top and a queer creek in the middle. Thanks!

[JimmyHAD]

I'm not an expert but I think it could be a hindostan. The lines certainly resemble one, and the way it was quarried/cut may account for the diagonal nature of the figure.

[doorsch]

Again a guess to direction to a Scotch Hone, was this bought in Uk/US?

The sidesticker reminds me just in colour of the ones used by Tam o Shanter and Water of Ayr Hone Works , but these were normally put on the side of the packaging...
But i see there is a writing...The Woo..

The lines again remind me on a DB Dalmore Blue stone...the layers seems to huge and not constant compared to a Hindo...also the colour doesnt fit (that could also be the camera + light which was used, so daylight shots would be appreciated)...

I think the Dalmore is more grayish sometimes into brown....the Hindostan mosly yellow, light yellow, yellow brown....

How does it perform...?

[Piet]

"THE WORLD"

Maybe a DB, does it suck up water?

[Neil Miller]

"THE WORLD"

Maybe a DB, does it suck up water?

"THE WORLDS" followed by 'best' perhaps?

Definitely not any form of The Water of Ayr & Tam O'shanter Hone Works label:



Could be some sort of a DB though, although one is used to seeing shear marks well defined in the layers of most. The coarser variety have ill-defined layering though, some to the point of amost being a solid drab colour, so it could veer towards the rough end of DBs, though it doesn't really look like one to me.

Regards,
Neil

[doorsch]

"THE WORLDS" followed by 'best' perhaps?

Definitely not any form of The Water of Ayr & Tam O'shanter Hone Works labels. Could be some sort of a DB though, although one is used to seeing shear marks well defined in the layers of most. The coarser variety have ill-defined layering though, some to the point of amost being a solid drab colour, so it could veer towards the rough end of DBs, though it doesn't really look like one to me.

Regards,
Neil

So what would be your guess Neil ? Any idea ?

[Neil Miller]

So what would be your guess Neil ? Any idea ?

Not a clue - not enough info to go on:

don't know how hard it is,
don't know what it looks like wet,
don't know what the slurry looks like or how easily it slurries,
don't know what it smells like,
etc, etc, etc.

Even if I knew the answers to those things, I still would not like to hazard a guess - for that's all it would be - without actually physically viewing and using the stone.

I don't even like the way it has been set in the box - the materials seem wrong, doesn't look like whiting/linseed oil, colophony or any of the old methods. Looks more like the way we used to do it in carpentry class at school with nothing to stick the hone in place.

Could well be some form of US novaculite like Jimmy suggests, cut at a weird angle. Falls in the right colour range.

Regards,
Neil

[doorsch]

"THE WORLDS" followed by 'best' perhaps?

Definitely not any form of The Water of Ayr & Tam O'shanter Hone Works label:



Could be some sort of a DB though, although one is used to seeing shear marks well defined in the layers of most. The coarser variety have ill-defined layering though, some to the point of amost being a solid drab colour, so it could veer towards the rough end of DBs, though it doesn't really look like one to me.

Regards,
Neil

I did not mean the ones on the Top, thats clear that these have a total different looking... there was a Sidelabel in red within the ToS Stones with Size and TOS or F. TOS for finer Stones or very fine stones...in knowing this it could be that the Hone Works also used this for a DB.....thats why i wrote the sidelabel reminds me on this just by the colour...and this label was not on the stone itself....

i checked again, and yes they used it also for the DB but in white colour.....so this direction was wrong

[mattluthier]

Thanks everyone for your input. I will take some more pictures with better lighting later today and also wet it. The stone does absorb water.

[Neil Miller]

No, obviously not the top label.

Not only does it not resemble the end label posted by the OP in any way, but neither do the end labels affixed to the original DBs, neither in colour nor in wording. As far as I know the boxes only from the WoA & TOS Honeworks had the top and end labels, the end labels probably for a quick ID of stock when the boxes were piled on the shelves.

One example that breaks the rule are the very thin TOS sticks (about 1/4 inch thick) that used to be used by jewellers to ease the escapements of watches, etc, and by printmakers. These had labels wrapped/stuck around the hone stone.

In the UK up until, say, 5 yrs ago there was a company called The Intaglio Printmakers that used to advertise WoA and TOS sticks in their inventory, but when I phoned them they said that they had such difficulty getting them from the quarry (this is at the same time that Simon - aka coully - had trouble getting more hones from said mine) that they had replaced them with a synthetic alternative. The same went for every other jewellers supply depot and printmakers I phoned, although most of them still used the old names regardless that the modern offerings were synthetic).

However, this does not affect the Dalmore Blue as it is a coarser stone than the TOS and much coarser than the WoA. Jewellers/printmakers did not use them and the labels were not affixed to the stones - not in any of the numerous examples I have had pass through my hands nor in pics of them I have seen.

Regards,
Neil