Thread: A Scotch Hone Quiz!

I would chime in if i would own enough labeled ones....most of mine are without any label ;-)

Originally Posted by doorsch

Changed Nr. 2: thats a Water of Ayr paddle due the Snake Stone Pattern

Changed Nr. 7: the only possible second Dalmore even if it looks very fine and homogenious. Unlabelled because Nr. 1 looks more typically like the labelled stones

nope, nr. 2 is just a not so handsom TOS, sorry!

Originally Posted by brightred

nope, nr. 2 is just a not so handsom TOS, sorry!

Really hard guessing game Hans....i look what others find out and what will be the solution at the End....

Thanks for that fun Game!!

and here is the solution:

Originally Posted by brightred

1 labelled dalmore blue DB: 7
1 unlabelled dalmore blue DB: 1
3 labelled tam o'shanter TOS: 6, 8 (Mauchline), 12
2 labelled fine tam o'shanter FTOS: 3, 5
1 labelled white tam o'shanter WTOS: 11
3 unlabelled tam o'shanter TOS: 2, 4, 9
1 labelled water of ayr WOA: 10
1 unlabelled water of ayr WOA: 13

a few remarks:

obviously the people at the honeworks did not waste too much time when assigning colours and grit fineness to the stones: nr. 3 and nr. 5 are both dual hones, consisting of WOA and FTOS.

saying that there are 2 WOA among the stones was a bit unfair: nr. 10 is what we call a TOS today, but it is labelled "WOA". there was a time when the honeworks sold both types as Water of Ayr. so, nr. 10 must be an old stone.

nr. 9 and 13 were glued into one single box. i didn't buy it because of the TOS, but because i thought and hoped that the dark one (nr. 13) might be a WOA. after cleaning and lapping it became clear that it is in fact a WOA.

nr. 11 is a rare labelled WTOS. it is my new colour reference for bright tam o'shanters. as you can see, nr. 4, 5 and 11 are about equally bright.

nr. 4 is an old, unlabelled TOS with an unevenly shaped back. it is brighter and finer than all the other TOS. a gem and the last one i'd give away.

i hope you enjoyed this little quiz! more pictures below!

regards,
hans

the labelled hones. labels removed from stones, except for the WTOS.




the dual hones (WOA/FTOS)




the WOA side of the dual hones and the back of a small WOA (nr. 13)




the labelled WTOS




closer view of the bright TOS. top to bottom: nr. 4 (unlabelled TOS), nr. 11 (labelled WTOS), nr. 5 (labelled FTOS)




an old TOS, sold as Water of Ayr

Originally Posted by brightred

nr. 11 is a rare labelled WTOS. it is my new colour reference for bright tam o'shanters. as you can see, nr. 4, 5 and 11 are about equally bright.

nr. 4 is an old, unlabelled TOS with an unevenly shaped back. it is brighter and finer than all the other TOS. a gem and the last one i'd give away.

i hope you enjoyed this little quiz! more pictures below!

regards,
hans

We did enjoy the quiz, thank you. And I've had more than 3 mistakes, but that's the fun part, if you know everything it gets boring.

As for the stones 4, 5, 11, there is a difference between them. The 4 and probably 5 are the true white ones, the 11 kind of looks like a white one, I'd be pretty sure there is a difference on the edge.
For your No4 stone, I know what you mean. Also, it doesn't go "the older, the finer", even more recent true white ones can shave similarly. I used to have one, honed with Smith's solution, really hard stone, but I sold it. And I still regret it. We hear about all kind of German, French, UK, US among others, (Jnats excluded) but that kind of TOS is far finer than any Escher, Charnley, WOA, translucent/Black Arkansas... From the west there are really few stones that can compare to that edge, and they are exceptions among their kind.
The general belief is "TOS stones are in the 6-7k range" but it's not as simple as that.
Here are a couple of shots from the one I used to have, unfortunately, you can't see the stone clear enough.

I can see that i have misse dmy chance to play but that is price to pay when eyes palying up.
As with TOS their main advantage is that they love crapier steel unlike others which would rip the edge of crappier stell off TOS don't.
As with the how fine they are they wary all the way. The same what applies to other hones.

Now little question for you where do you think most of the TOS material finished?

Originally Posted by adrspach

I can see that i have misse dmy chance to play but that is price to pay when eyes palying up.
As with TOS their main advantage is that they love crapier steel unlike others which would rip the edge of crappier stell off TOS don't.
As with the how fine they are they wary all the way. The same what applies to other hones.

Now little question for you where do you think most of the TOS material finished?

I don't know about TOS stones being more forgiving to "bad steel" than any other stone. There used to be a rumor that "a TOS never overhones" but I never understood it. In any case, it worked perfectly well on all razors equally (razors, not razor shaped objects, I don't know about them). I also don't understand the science behind their love for bad steel.
As for the question on "where most of the TOS material finished?" are we talking about time? I don't know when did they start extracting it, and that would definitely be an interesting story, but like most old quarries, I'd assume the stopped cutting/selling it the last 50-20 years? As far as I know, there are still warehouses with stones and old men who reluctantly sell a piece or two of the unsold ones whenever they feel like it. As for the place they were finished, Mr. Henk's article describes it, it was close to the mine.
So, I'm not sure, please share your knowledge.

Not everything has so called science behind it. Sometimes it is about experience of generations of users simmilar to Pierre La Lune.
To answer the question - The most of the material was crushed as filler for paints and pastes.

Originally Posted by adrspach

Not everything has so called science behind it. Sometimes it is about experience of generations of users simmilar to Pierre La Lune.
To answer the question - The most of the material was crushed as filler for paints and pastes.

Yeah something we have with a lot of so called razor hones. As seen at ardennes fex. and on some of the german razor hones. In most cases razor hones were not the "main" product of the quarry because it would easily just too expensive to run the quarry only selling the hones....so producing and selling hones has always been a small but probably money bringing side business. Sure this cant be transferred to all hones but as said to quite a good amount.....