Thread: From auction site

I just won this at auction, even though i have no idea what it is at the minute, i won it at a price that i would say is very reasonable for an adventure. the pictures are the ones it was listed with at auction. I was kinda struck by the case too, the case is to nice to house something crappy (im hoping). very hard to tell from the pictures.

Long used as an oil stone. It appears to be coarse, but................
Were it me, I would take the stone outside and give it a some heavy sprays of oven cleaner (Outside! with rubber gloves on!!!) Let it set over night and wash the stone with a cheap grease removing detergent/citrus cleaner.
That will give you an idea of what you have and what the grit level may be.
A few more repetitions of the above routine and you have a hone that may be worth using at some point of your honing routine.
Then some photos of the clean stone will help us identify it.
Got some suspicians!
~Richard

sure thing Geezer, it has been dispatched so i hope to get a look at it this week. once its cleaned i will try running a knife with a high bevel over it and see how it feels.

Well, after 2 nights in oven cleaner and a good scrub, turns out its not grey,

feels a little finer than it looks too, but i wouldnt want to guess at an equivalent grit approximation , i know very little of india stones.

ITS BROWN

A good hone for plane irons and some other edged tools, Usually between 220 and 400 grit as i remember.
With clean oil again on it It could be a good bread knifing or pre beve-set hone. Do not use strokes along the edge but only perpendicular to the spine. Otherwise the diagonal scratches can weaken an edge causing it to fail later. Yup, I had that happen! Ditto with a DMT. It'll take some time on a 1K to get the scratches out.
Great piece of history there: They are aluminum oxide which can break down to a smaller grit with use and are still available in Coarse and fine.
Nice box and stone!
~Richard

TBH im having a lot of fun just bringing it back to life, there is also lettering stamped along the long edge but its extremely faded and i cant make it out.

Have fun trying this one...

In my experience almost anything with dried grey swarf on it is going to be lower grit stone. More than likely a carbo or a India like you have there.

[QUOTE=stev;1416054]I just won this at auction, even though i have no idea what it is at the minute, i won it at a price that i would say is very reasonable for an adventure. the pictures are the ones it was listed with at auction. I was kinda struck by the case too, the case is to nice to house something crappy (im hoping). very hard to tell from the pictures.


Was the piece of metal with it? If so it could be what my dad has. It was in it's day a finish stripper for wood. you would set the on edge across the top of the stone and draw it back and forth and the use the burr to remove the finish from the wood with out harming the wood at all coolest thing I have ever seen. But then again I could be crazy too.