Help! Identifying Turkish Natural Stone

Hello everyone, I live in Turkey and my friend gave me this natural stone yesterday but I haven't used it nor lapped it. This stone was mined northern-east region near the Georgia and the Black Sea. A sixty-five years old man mines this stone from his village area. He confirmed that this type of stone used to be used as a razor hone or other tools. My friend tried to hone his razor and said it is not finer than his coticule and shave was like a coticule. Making slurry with this stone is not easy. By the way stone is drying very fast. Like my Chinese 12k(PHIG). Surface of the stone is very very smooth glass like(by feel). Couple of experienced friends claim that this stone somehow alike Thuringian stones. Any thoughts?

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It looks nice. Aside from that, nobody can tell only by pictures if the stone is a finisher or not.

No one else here likely has one of those, so we can't easily tell you if it's like a Thuringian. It is already quite significantly different in one way - most Thuris are fairly soft and easy to slurry, and you say that stone is very hard.

It could be a turkish oil stone? Those were fron Turkey right?

BTW pming you. You got my HAD itching.

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Originally Posted by DireStraights

It could be a turkish oil stone? Those were fron Turkey right?

BTW pming you. You got my HAD itching.

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Not every stone that comes from Turkey is a Turkey oilstone. It can be called Turkey hone, and, if used with oil, then "Turkey" or "Turkish" oilstone, but it's a different stone from the Turkey oilstone™. Also, probably, the actual Turkey oilstone did not originate from Turkey.

Kritikos Ine ;)

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Originally Posted by Vasilis

Not every stone that comes from Turkey is a Turkey oilstone. It can be called Turkey hone, and, if used with oil, then "Turkey" or "Turkish" oilstone, but it's a different stone from the Turkey oilstone™. Also, probably, the actual Turkey oilstone did not originate from Turkey.

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If you have ever seen a turkish oilstone they are a dark color. Similar to the stone OP posted. I haven't seen one with red figuring though.

I wasn't trying to be redundant. I don't know how fine they are but I know they're hard. And I don't think they would be called Turkey or Turkish unless they had something in common back in the day.

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Originally Posted by Vasilis

Not every stone that comes from Turkey is a Turkey oilstone. It can be called Turkey hone, and, if used with oil, then "Turkey" or "Turkish" oilstone, but it's a different stone from the Turkey oilstone™. Also, probably, the actual Turkey oilstone did not originate from Turkey.

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Thanks gents. I lapped the stone with 80/320/1000 w/d sandpaper. I tried to touch up on of my shave-ready razors which was finished on C12k. Unfortunatelly it degraded the edge significantly. I did 50 laps on clean water and check the edge. I didn't like what I saw under magnification. Scratches look like 6-8k pattern in my guesstimation. It didn't shave arm hair above the skin easliy. Did another 50 laps and checked. Little bit improvement. Did another 10 laps and it shaved arm hair above the skin. I stropped on canvas/leather 60/120 laps and this morning I tested the edge on my cheek. Too much pulling, tagging etc. It is not shave ready not even close. It is possible that I made some mistakes in somewhere but in my coticule or bbw I get this result in early stages. May be I should lap it up to 2000 grit sandpaper.

Its might be a Turkish Hone but not in the Term of a Turkey Oil Stone, however this one looks interesting and iam getting interested in it ;-)

Thats one of my Turkey Oil Stones:
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5573/...ab9099_c_d.jpg

Mine is definitely not a Turkish oil or Crete stone. Because the region where mine is mined is opposite far end of the country. And it is different by look. But I will test the stone with wd-40 and thin machine oil. I hope I can get better examples on May or June.

There are a lot of different slate stones like that, it's hard to tell how good it is until you get a razor on it, perhaps get some pics of an edge against pictures of an edge from a known stone, etc. Even in the US there is a lot of slate and chert that is not novaculite but that will finish a razor. For various reasons (jasper comes to mind), it's either extremely hard and oddly shaped because it's not cut into a stone for honing because there are other users (jewelers) or there just aren't big enough pieces, etc.

There are also a lot of stones capable of finishing a razor that just don't do it that well. If the shave is like a coticule, then for a slate that's problematic, I'd say. It depends on the coticule, too, but it may be that the particle size in that stone is a bit large. Who knows?

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Originally Posted by Chinaski

Mine is definitely not a Turkish oil or Crete stone. Because the region where mine is mined is opposite far end of the country. And it is different by look. But I will test the stone with wd-40 and thin machine oil. I hope I can get better examples on May or June.

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Any updates on testing ?

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Originally Posted by doorsch

Any updates on testing ?

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I did some tests, this stone is waterstone for sure, it is a finishing or pre finishing stone depends on user. It gives an edge like avarage Thuringians, edge are smooth may be little bit less keenness(very subjective I know). Cutting speed is moderate, no slurry dulling as far as I observed, not suitable for bevel setting. I know we can't say grit range for naturals but I put this stone between coticule and Chinese PHIG IMHO.

And I have to say these stones vary a lot even if they come from same quarry (keenness/smoothness).

i think it's a hone from blacksea. i've already heard about it. You can search it with "artvin bley tasi" (mean; artvin hone)

here a post about this hone but in turkish.

Artvin biley taşı

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Originally Posted by Oustoura

i think it's a hone from blacksea. i've already heard about it. You can search it with "artvin bley tasi" (mean; artvin hone)

here a post about this hone but in turkish.

Artvin biley taşı

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Yep, I know about that topic because I am a member of that forum. I got the stone in regarding that. Thanks :)

while reading the post in turkish forum, they told about 10k grit but very slow one. between coticule and thuring.

Yes, I tried two of them and they are different in finemess and cutting speed.