Anyone Know This Hone ???

A friend sent this to me for lapping and we hope to ID it. The hone belonged to his wife's grandfather, and he maintained his straight razor on it for years, until switching to DE. I cannot tell whether it is a synthetic, or a natural. It is 4&5/8 long, x 1& 7/16 wide, about 7/8 thick at the end, away from the dished center.

If it is a barber hone I'd like to be sure that lapping it won't get it to the point where it begins to come apart. I know some of them are good to lap, and others are not. I gave it a good wash with water and a nylon bristle brush. I've done nothing else with it as of now. The owner of this hone, an experienced straight razor user, has Frictionite 00, a Moravian, Super Punjab and a Swaty, so it is not like any of those.

Anyone have an idea on an ID ?

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Chipped corner indicates to me it is a natural. It appears to be dual layered. The middle photo makes it look glued while the bottom photo makes it appear to be naturally a dual layer. Is the boundary straight?

So far, I have no idea.

Obvious first question is does it smell of oil?

Hard to tell Jimmy, looks like its almost 2 sided, perhaps lap a side or the end of it and post more pics? Unusually thick for a barber's hone?

I know that you and the owner are well experienced, but i have to ask if this might be a very dirty or miscolored Coticule ?

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Originally Posted by doorsch

I know that you and the owner are well experienced, but i have to ask if this might be a very dirty or miscolored Coticule ?

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I would go with this,,, if I were the owner, considering its current stated ,,, I would be willing to EZ-Off this stone for 30 minutes,,, this would pull a lot of the surface garbage & clear up the sides enough to tell if this is an dirty Coticule or a man-made.

Use a fine WD paper 1000grits and rub it over the side where both layers come together....just check which colors appear...

I would hit it with WD-40 as I sanded it.

Thanks all, I'll get it on a plate tomorrow and take more pix in good light. Too dark out now.

My guess.......Carborundum. In which case , good luck lapping it :<0)

Most manmade stones are 2" wide, this is 1 7/16 which is more normal for a natural razor stone. Most manmade barber hones are 1/2" or less. This is 7/8" which is also more common in natural stones. The chip on the blue end looks like a natural stone chip. The side view, pic 2, says that this is a glued together stone. The other side being a perfectly straight line also says glued, not a natural seam.
The scratches on the side say it is soft like a slate or other sedimentary stone. My conclusion is that this is a 2
sided natural stone probably from the slate family. If I am correct then when you lap it a chalky dust will form and will be much easier to lap than most hones.

Just my 2¢ :)

Well it ain't a coticule, and it ain't a glued stone. I think 10pups may have hit the nail on the head ........ Carborundum ? It has a lot of orange bits in it that you can see when it is wet, and shiny white flecks under magnification that resemble some I've seen in Thuringan stones.

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Looks like a sandstone. May be a dalmore.
Definitly not a carborundum. Carborundums that I met were grey or dark grey in color.

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Originally Posted by Botanic

Looks like a sandstone. May be a dalmore.
Definitly not a carborundum. Carborundums that I met were grey or dark grey in color.

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Would have guessed Sandstone too...

On my phone I think I see faint banding on the side

Not a Dalmore for sure, and no banding, faint or otherwise on the side. I'll lap the top and see what a larger area will reveal. Thanks for all of the replies. :tu

Took 20 minutes to lap. Had to get out the DMT XX 120 or I'd still be there. Did the 120, the DMT 325, and finally the Atoma 1200. Here are some pix, wet & dry ;

Dry

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Wet

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Dry with direct sunlight

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I've got a lot of Carborundums and that ain't a Carborundum. It definitely appears to be a natural. That is more-so with these newer photos.

Jimmy, regardless of what it is, the thing I like about it is the fact that some guy used only this rock to maintain his straight razor for years. I continue to maintain a set of seven razors with just a barber hone and like the fact that the continue to work just fine year after year. I could make them "better" with many other hones, but I prefer to leave them "pure."

I hope you will take one or more razors and hone them up on just this rock and see how it works.

What a difference a good bath/scrubbing makes ! :)

I have to agree with it being a natural sandstone. Definitely not manmade.

I see slight layering or banding and orange specks, I would say it's a Hindostan stone, from Indiana.

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I am going more towards sandstone type such as Dalmore Yellow or on your side of pong Canadian Oilstone.

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Originally Posted by Martin103

I see slight layering or banding and orange specks, I would say it's a Hindostan stone, from Indiana.

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Plenty of orange specks, and when dry silvery sparkly specks (less of them) but no banding is apparent to me ........... :thinking:

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I've got a lot of Carborundums and that ain't a Carborundum. It definitely appears to be a natural. That is more-so with these newer photos.

Jimmy, regardless of what it is, the thing I like about it is the fact that some guy used only this rock to maintain his straight razor for years. I continue to maintain a set of seven razors with just a barber hone and like the fact that the continue to work just fine year after year. I could make them "better" with many other hones, but I prefer to leave them "pure."

I hope you will take one or more razors and hone them up on just this rock and see how it works.

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+1 ,,,,,,,,,,,,

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I hope you will take one or more razors and hone them up on just this rock and see how it works.

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Great minds think alike. :) Had put this Genco Fluid Steel aside because it needed attention, so I did water only, more or less weight of the blade. Did some round trips and tested, then back to the hone. Probably took 50 round trips all told, but it gave me a great shave. Stropped on horsehide BTW.

I'm curious as to whether this hone would be 'better' with oil ? Seems from the rich patina I lapped off it probably was used with oil, but even before lapping water didn't bead up, and I didn't detect any residue of oil. Are sandstones, assuming that is what it is, suited to oil as well as water only ?

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Do you have any Smith's honing solution? That would allow you to have some general sense of what honing with oil would be like on it. It's water soluble so it's not a permanent alteration to the hone. Also, because it's water soluble, you can alter its viscosity by diluting it with water.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

Do you have any Smith's honing solution? That would allow you to have some general sense of what honing with oil would be like on it. It's water soluble so it's not a permanent alteration to the hone. Also, because it's water soluble, you can alter its viscosity by diluting it with water.

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Also Water Glycerine is a potentially substitute solution to get a feeling how honing on oil would be....

...depending how the mixture is set up you can simulate the viscosity or thickness of an oil

Just mailed it back to the owner a couple of hours ago. Thanks to all for the input. :tu