Thread: Pike's Lisbon Chocolate Hone

Here is another description i found on an old Pike Information about Oil Stones. Its the german Version from the catalogue from 1902.



The Chocolate Stone is a fine grained, mica type stone, in a chocolate color. It is softer then the "Queer Creek" and sharpens very fast. The Choclate Stone creates a medium-fine edge and is mostly used for Leather- and Tanningknives. He is often used for Cloth-, kitchen- and carving- and Pocketknives.
Its a stone which fastly creates a medium-fine edge, and its usable with water and oil.

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply to this one. Actually it took me quite a while to get that stone sent to germany.


I wanted to my first findings here with you. Actually I think its one of the most interesting finds during the last 2 years. You might ask yourself now why ?

- actually just because such a stone was never seen the last years
- it still shows the original labeling from Pike Mfg. New Hampshire
- its not a razor hone and probably a coarse natural stone
- it’s a really beautiful looking and glittering stone (haha I love those)
- a lot of details on this stone is still available

All those points sum it up to be in the group of the most inters testing stones around where I still rate f.ex. the Lunes, Special Stone for Good Razors, Pierre de Sud Ouest.

I can report the following details till now, I still have to evaluate more details on the working properties and its working grit. As a first estimation I can tell that a well set and polished bevel (up to 10K finished on a TransArk) can well be changed after using the Pikes Lisbon Chocolate Hone. You will see quite deep scratches after using the chocolate hone. As a first estimation I would rate it in a range of 1-3K of a comparable synthetic grit stone. I will also try some surface prepping and see if this changes the general working behavior.

So here are my first impressions to describe that stone:

1. A very hard and dense mica-slate with a good amount of quartz. It really took me some hours to get out the dish which was around 3-4mm of deepness. I first used 220 WD paper and needed more than 6 sheets and 2 hours of lapping, still leaving a dish. I switched to 80grit WD paper and needed another 2 sheets and 1 hour more to have a flat surface. In hardness it could probably compared to harder stones (f.ex. Arks, Quartzites)

2. Hell !! It’s a beauty of a stone. I still don’t really get that name chocolate Hone. Used with oil it was very dirty and it really looked like a chocolate bar. But after cleaning it showed its glittering beauty. The coloration tends to go in a brown-red with a bluish reflection. It’s hard to describe this coloration, the color changes within the angle the light is reflected.

3. It can shows partly identifiers of other well-known stones, in this case a Belgian Blue Whetstone (the surface look) or Lorraine Rouge (the slurry color). It also shares properties of the La Lune Stones (slurry color) and Special Stones (surface glittering).

4. Actually after having the Chocolate Hone and the Special Stone only for good Razors (SSOFGR) in my hand it seems that both stones might be a type of mica-slate. That’s why I added also a comparison shot in the video

The video took me a while to create, its filled with some quotes of older Literature.
I hope you enjoy watching it !!

Love it Sebastian! video is very well done. No guessing around or making stuff up, a labelled stone. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Love it Sebastian! video is very well done. No guessing around or making stuff up, a labelled stone. Thanks for sharing.

Glad you like it! Yeah its preferable to just show whats actually available on information, based on older catalogues or Literature....

Quarrying and Cutting
Here is another update more precise on the quarrying and cutting of the stones. The Chocolate Stone also named Chocolate Rock could be quarried in much bigger quantities then Arkansas stones could.

At the quarry bigger pieces nearly like a square foot have been placed in wooden frames. These frames were transported to the cutting saw operations.

The cutting element was a steam of water and sand. The size of the sandparticles bought were bigger then the grain of the stone which should be cut. So the stone was scratched away...the saw blade itself was made out of plain band steel and only worked due gravity and the water/sand mixture.

Harder stones fex. Arkansas Stones could be feeded in by their own gravity, the other softer stones like Scythe stones or the chocolate Stone were operated with a positive feed in working with a screw.

The cutting action was very very slow. With around 30 strokes per minute it took 12hours to cut 5inch of stone (Washita). Arkansas stones took about 1inch in 12hours. The Chocolate hone took around 20inch in 12hours.

irregular Sizes
After that there were around 25 freshly cutted slabs. They took out the largest sizes. The smaller sizes were brought to the chipping room were smaller and irregular sizes have been cut. The chipping was mainly done by hand.

The operator worked with a chisel and did cut at the ends of the raw cut stone where the wished end was to get the wanted size.

Cutting the Chocolate Stone
The Chocolate hone was cut with a special machine, a type of a mechanic driven anvil. The stone was placed under the anvil. At the end there was a type of a bigger chisel which was moved down with pressure to cut/chip the Chocolate Hone at the preferred area.

Incredible - a quick search and turns out one of these sold in July 2016 for $67.00 on ebay...

Antique Pike Manufacturing LISBON CHOCOLATE Oil & Water Sharpening Stone Hone | eBay

Originally Posted by Phrank

Incredible - a quick search and turns out one of these sold in July 2016 for $67.00 on ebay...

Antique Pike Manufacturing LISBON CHOCOLATE Oil & Water Sharpening Stone Hone | eBay

Probably it was the one i bought ;-)

Rough Grinding and finishing the surface

Finishing Arkansas and Washita stones was done with a 8ft. Diameter cast iron disk running at 80rpm. The surface was kept true with a cast iron block. Also here the cutting medium was a mixture of sand and water which was placed on the disk. The stones were held from the operator to get the wanted result, then he collected some stones. When he got so of them ready they were shortly type of "glued" together. Then the ends of this lot was prepared the same way he did with the sides.

Hey Kees, there soon will be a new release on that Topic! Will keep you updated