Thread: help IDing a hone

Hello all,
Whilst down at my inlaw's lake house (which is pretty far off the grid) in south eastern Missouri, I came across this rock being sold as a "vintage knife sharpener"... I won't say what I payed for it, but it was a trivial amount.
I have my suspicions about what this may be, but I wanted to ask more experienced members what their thoughts were. good find, or "get what you pay for"?

it's about 8"x1.5" an as you can see, fairly thick. tapers down just slightly on one side.
Any info on what this might be would be great!

(p.s. i haven't put a razor to it yet, but i'll update when i have a chance to)

I do not believe it to be a Thuringian. It lacks spme of the defining features. There are some slate beds out East. I would suggest adding baking powder to your water when honing. Some of the slate hones are quite acidic. That I found to my chagrin! Most of them tried were quite soft but a couple were very hard. Not anthracite coal hard but hard Coticule hard. No way to know without trying a blade. Some are good pre-finishers.
Let us know what you find, please.
~Richard

Thanks Richard!
It's a confusing stone to be sure... I put baking powder on it as instructed and there was no notable reaction.
Put one of my go-to razors to it this evening. I have a couple razors that I consider stupid-proof and seem to take an edge well off any good stone the first time. I can report that this stone provided a pretty fine edge. I would say it's pretty similar to my larger charnley forest and very similar light delicate feedback, but notably faster. It doesn't have the "clay" sort of smell of a cf, so that's out. also of note is that the old box that it came in was definitely hand made, and there was no trace of oil. So this is and always has been used as a water hone it seems.
I should mention that it's slightly more green than the images appear. It also seems just slightly lighter than what I would expect from a slate stone of similar size. That could just be my mind playing tricks though, I havent gone through the steps to verify this.
If anyone has any more ideas of what i may be based on that, please let me know. would love to put a name to this little fella

Baking powder in the water, that reduces rusting of the steel being honed. Old Japanese method. I am glad you find a good edge from the stone. Sounds like a keeper!
~Richard

That shot blasted area on the taper looks very similar so one of my Cambrock silkstones. I'm not saying it is a Cambrock, As there is simply not enough information to tell!

I suspect the pattern is made by wet sand on a rotating disc.



Same stone wet.

Originally Posted by Iceni

That shot blasted area on the taper looks very similar so one of my Cambrock silkstones. I'm not saying it is a Cambrock, As there is simply not enough information to tell!

I suspect the pattern is made by wet sand on a rotating disc.

definitely looks very similar. That's why i included that area, there are a couple places on it and saw/cut marks can tell a lot. are the dimensions on yours at all similar to this one? This one is pretty thick, like 1.5", and that struck me as unusual for most hones of this size as well

It is a little, I've seen them in 1/2 and 1 inch in sleeves. This one is a touch under 8 inches long and 1 3/4 wide.

Loads of sparkle and takes a nice glassy burnish. The burnish is pretty soft so I have to be careful with pressure when honing.

My other one is currently on loan and I don't have any pictures of it as it was a bit of a mess (big flake off the underside). That has similar dimensions but is 1 inch thick. Both came with sleeves.

The saw marks on the one I'm holding actually look near identical to be fair. I might have some pictures of that angle 1 min.

It's harder to see them in the pictures, but the angle and depth (apart from that deep travesty at the taper) are very similar.

Looks like a piece of slate to me. All Thuringian hones are slate hones but not all slate is from Thuringen. I presume you bought it in the US. AFAIK Thuringians were imported into the US in different sizes. IMHO it is therefore very unlikely it is a Thuringian. However, slate from other areas can make for good hones as well. Take e.g. Welsh slate hones.
Does not look like the Silkstone I have.

Took a few more razors to it late last night. Really cool stone, it's aaalmost as fine as the charnley forest i've got but much much faster. whether it's a no-name or not, definitely glad to have added it to the collection. Thanks for all the help so far trying to ID it!

Closer images here (post lapping) if anyone else wants to add speculation as to the origins of this stone, i'd love to hear it.
after lapping it's got some sparkle to it, but nowhere near like my CF when you hold it to the light. it also feels very soft when putting a razor to it, feedback from the razor makes it seem much softer than the stone actually is. Thoughts?