Thread: Silkstone for woodworkers

Spotting a boxed slate stone at a car boot, I bought it (£1.50). The seller
said that it was part of his g-father's tools, which he was also selling;
all woodworking tools, saws, chisels, gauges etc.

I took the stone home, noted that it was nearly flat (unusual), and that the box
wasn't saturated in oil/grease (which it normally would be).

I splashed on some water, which beaded up, indicating that
the stone has seen at least "some" oil.

I lubricated with white spirit ("mineral spirits" in the USA)
and tried my normal "trial chisel" (an old, pitted pre
1920 Sheffield model). The stone cut well, forming black "ink"
in the white spirit, gave good grip/feedback,
and left a near mirror finish.

The box is labelled Silkstone/Cambrock, and google bought me here.
I can add little to what has already been said, but I can say that
as a woodworker, this stone would make an excellent partner
to follow a Norton India fine - India fines abrade quickly,
but they're not quite fine enough to give a good cutting
edge, but the silkstone is fast enough for the grit
jump not to be excessive, but fine enough that the resulting
is usable for all but the most critical smooth planing.

I wonder which quarry is came from?

My next stop (given my other hobby of family/social history
research) is the British Newspaper Archive, which I have
a subscription for, to see if I can find any information.

I won't bother posting photos, since my stone and box appears
identical to the photos already posted by others (which implies
these were sold in some numbers)

BugBear

Searching in the British Newspaper Archive;

"Cambrock" only appears as an OCR error for Carnbrock in Ireland.

Silkstone appears frequently, because of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkstone

I believe both these to be false hits - I don't think there's
anything in the BNA relevant to these razor hones, which is
quite interesting in itself.

BugBear

Further; I found nothing in:

The London Gazette
Times of London
Grace's Guide

BugBear

Yes, they are a mid-range, to finishing stone that can be used for razors, but there are better finishing solutions.

For wood working tools it should be a fine stone for hand tools where you rarely need more than a 1k edge.

Razor and Stone, is another good resource for stone information. There is some good info on the Silkstone.

Welcome BugBear, Don't be surprised if you find yourself using a straight razor in the near future. Researching sharpening mediums is what brought me here too.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

Welcome BugBear, Don't be surprised if you find yourself using a straight razor in the near future. Researching sharpening mediums is what brought me here too.

I actually own a cased pair of Mappin & Webb razors - but I've sported a "full set" for decades!

BugBear

Originally Posted by bugbear

I actually own a cased pair of Mappin & Webb razors

BugBear

Photos or it never happened...

Originally Posted by Grazor

Photos or it never happened...

+1 I love Mappin & Webb razors. Would love to see yours.

No one at any of the razor or knife sites seems to know where this stone was mined. I did quite a lot of googling but the only thing I was able to uncover was several coal mines in England with Silkstone in the name. No idea if they are related or not though. I have two Silkstones, one was N.O.S. unused with the original cutting and flattening marks. They are pretty good stones but the produced shaving edges are slightly behind the top tier stones IME. Mine have given their best edges on oil with a fairly well polished surface.