Thread: Pike's Lisbon Chocolate Hone

Beeing in the research on some connections between Escher & Pike i found some Literature and Old Pricelists dealing with the Pikes Chocolate Hone. It seems to be a fairly fine stone from the descriptions so i got more interested in it....i only found one reference within SRP here made by A_S. As the thread is already closed i will add the original quote zu the choclate stone here:

"Pike, Grafton County
Owned by the Pike Manufacturing Co. The stones were worked at least as far back as 1825. Fine-grained, highly siliceous mica schists, reportedly the finest of this type found in the world"

Source: http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...-origin-3.html

As said i did further more research on this topic and found some more sources i wanted to share here.

"At Lisbon, Grafton County, N.H. there occurs a fine grained quartz, mica schist of blueish choclate color, which furnishes a stone known as the chocolate whetstone. Its a medium hard stone and is especially adapted for leather and skinning knives, and it is also used extensively for sharpening cloth cutters tools, kitchen and carving knives" Source: Mines and Quarries 1902 on Google Books

"The Chocolate Stone, quarried at Lisbon is a finer grained then the Indian Pond stone and is made into oilstones, knifestones or fine scythe stones. From 10-15 tons are produced annually. The chocolate stone is not finished by Pike Manufacturing Company, but the manufacture is carried on by contract with the Lisbon parties." Source: Stone Vol. 5 on Google Books

So i found this stone quite interesting, it sound more like a coarse to medium stone, even if some descriptions "fine grained" did made me think it might be a finer one....

Anyboday owned or owns a stone of this type ?

When I had just started reading your post I was hoping you had found the source of the elusive brown Escher.

Yup. My Pike Swatys could be renamed Brown Eschers!

Haven't run across one yet, but it sounds to me like your assessment is probably accurate - historically when the reference material says "used for carving knives" they considered it a coarse to medium stone.

The finest type found in the "World", that says a lot to me. How Bout it N.H. guys?? found any chocOlate around Lisbon??

There has to be some of these stones out there, especially east coast, Kitchens maybe?

10 to 15 tons annually sounds like multiple years of production, and a lot of rock. The tough part is finding a sample with a label or original box to verify what has been found, those do not survive nearly as well as hones. I am intrigued by this thread.

Originally Posted by RezDog

10 to 15 tons annually sounds like multiple years of production, and a lot of rock. The tough part is finding a sample with a label or original box to verify what has been found, those do not survive nearly as well as hones. I am intrigued by this thread.

Haha Shaun, yeah that would be the best approach. Iam quite sure i can help out with that request soon ;-) so i will keep it updated here....

The Pike Mfg Pricelist is like a big treasure box with many names of stones i never heard of...

I have it from a good source that the best honing medium for the Chocolate Lisbon hone is whipped cream ........

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I have it from a good source that the best honing medium for the Chocolate Lisbon hone is whipped cream ........

Mhh that sounds good Jimmy :-)