Interesting antique store find

So, I was patrolling some antique stores yesterday in search of some interesting rocks. Made it through 7 stores before I finally found one. I have the inkling that there are more, I just have to keep hitting all the stores. Anyways, I was perusing the one right by my apartment and lo' and behold, a stone with a simple "whetstone $3.95" was sitting on a table. I didn't even look too close because a) it is a decent dimension indicating it was longer, just the right size for a good hone and b) it was green, at worst it would be a neat paper weight even though my windows don't oopen at work. I have lapped it, was disturbingly scratched like someone wanted to saw it into a million pieces, and finished two razors on it; one with dmt slurry, one with out. Slurry seemed appreciably fast, but left striation uncomfortably deep for me, but plain water seems to polish nicely. Test shave will be done shortly and now time for poorly rotated cellphone pics.

Pics are missing ;-)

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Originally Posted by doorsch

Pics are missing ;-)

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My "smart" phone won't attach them for some reason, no matter how I do it. I will be sure to update this thread tomorrow morning.

can't wait to see it. Why can't i ever find any stones in antique stores:shrug:

Now, I think I can put the foutters up.

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Iam not 100% sure, but it could well be a thuringian Stone. Slurry looks a bit too off / too dark....

Whats the exact size ?
Is it soft ? Do you think its a type of slate ?

It's reasonably soft, it lapped on 320 grit slightly more difficultly than a Naniwa hone, reasonably harder than my coticule which seems to be of a harder variety. Not as hard to lap as my vermio hone, which I imagine is fairly similar to slate. I don't really have any experience with slate/or stones in general other than the three I've mentioned. However, it still feels almost dried clay-like. It does have black spots and some swirling on the surface that is extremely faint. There are some sparkly bits similar to but smaller than my coticule, if you get the angle just right. Prior to lapping, the stone's non-scratched portions were darker and the gouges were yellow in color, like it develops a patina. The slurry it produces is a fairly deep green color. The stone is matte, even after honing with 2 razors and going up to 2000 grit sandpaper. All the stones I have do not show scratch marks from my 320 sandpaper, except for this stone, it had to go to 800 to get a visibly smooth surface (I only have 320,800,1500&2000).

It's dimension are approximately 2.75" x5"x.75", but it appears to have been a longer piece. One end is not quite perpendicular in either direction, whereas the other three are fairly square. Makes me guess that someone cared for it enough to smooth out the broken piece and then abused by another owner, almost like they use 32 grit paper on it.

You won't want that one for razors. Looks like a Portuguese paver stone. I'm short one brick in my back yard, do you mind sending that to me so I can complete my project???

Can you try to catch the swirling or the spots ? And add some daylight shots ?

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Harry, Dunno if I trust you about that

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Originally Posted by doorsch

Can you try to catch the swirling or the spots ? And add some daylight shots ?

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I shall do that shortly, unless it starts to rain again

Here's probably the best picture I could get showing the swirling/spots, so bright out I can hardly see my phone.

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Mmm Hmm, looks like a Slate of Thuringer to me, Hurry up and Hone with it Dinnermint.

I'd say Thuri. Your pic of the slurry sure says Thuri. Take a blade to an 8k level, then go to this one and see if it improves the edge. Try and use a blade that you know will take a good edge.

I'm with Sebastian - slurry looks a little dark to me to be Thuri. All mine are much brighter. Also even diamond plate slurry gives a good finish with mine. To the OP - did the slurry discolor/darken at all when you tried slurry honing? Mine don't do that either.

It did not seem to darken perceptibly when I tried to slurry. However, it was a blade I rescaled and neglected to properly set the bevel, so the attempted shave sucked anyways. Last night, I honed 'er up properly and went through 1/5/8 and ended on the stone, water only. It is difficult to describe this stone, I had some problematic stria on the bevel, repeated trips to 5/8 couldn't get them out. However, the edge looked good and I spent some serious time on the stone. It left the bevel at/better than my 8k and sufficiently removed significant problematic stria. I'm pretty smitten with this stone so far, what ever it is. Test shave tonight, hopefully.

I am probably going to lap the opposite side of the stone, to see if that gives any clearer indication of its lineage.

Well, test shave kinda stunk. *sigh* However, I think my abilities as a honer at the moment just stinks with naturals. Except with the vermio, but apparently a 3 fingered chimp can use it if I can do it. More experimentation tonight.

Try doing only around 30 or 40 laps on the new stone after your 1/5/8 synth work. Maybe you spent too much time on it and did a bit of damage. BTW, you are pretty close to me - looks like 150ish miles. Hiya neighbor!

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Originally Posted by eKretz

Try doing only around 30 or 40 laps on the new stone after your 1/5/8 synth work. Maybe you spent too much time on it and did a bit of damage. BTW, you are pretty close to me - looks like 150ish miles. Hiya neighbor!

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Howdy neighbor!

That's a good point, will give that a shot. I'm having a meet up Aug 13th if you're interested.

It is a welow - green thuringian Good stuff - very good indeedb Enjoy

I have a stone that I found when I was still quite new to wet shaving. It looked like a thurinigian, slurried like a thuringian, soft like a thuringian but when I used it after an 8k I could not improve the edge. For the longest time I figured it was a 4-6k stone. Not until recently I revisited this stone and was able to polish the edge to a very very fine level. I found that it was a slower stone, not quite as quick as 2 other thuris I have, but very good once I figured it out.

Don't disregard it as a good stone yet, give it some time and mess around with it a bit. Less slurry, more slurry, no slurry.

I definitely won't, the razor I am working on with it is a recent fixer-upper. So I am going to go back to the synths to get her up to speed to a 12k and see out it effects the edge. It seems on the slower side, and polishes well. It will be a good stone, just have to approach it a little more appropriately than I have.

Mightve been better to test with a razor that's already up and running. Might be more a problem with the razor than the hone.

That's part of my battle plan, I was a little too hopeful for this razor to be a quick an easy hone.

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Originally Posted by dinnermint

That's part of my battle plan, I was a little too hopeful for this razor to be a quick an easy hone.

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All I will say is that if you don't have a bevel,nyoure just polishing a dull edge. :gth

Oh, I've done my fair share. This blade did have a bevel today, then some how dinged the edge, then bumped the edge on my mag glass inspecting where I dinged it. It's been a strong test of my patience and correcting silly mistakes.