Quote Originally Posted by Marshal View Post
Yeah, cracking is definitely no good. Might be acceptable if sold as a second or something. I've got a small hard stone from Gatco that came a little cracked. I think it was damaged in shipping. The dealer gave me a few bucks off it, and it's been a decent knife/tool hone for work. Never ceases to amaze me how well it works in spite of the defect.

I wasn't expecting that rock to be translucent. Happy accident I guess. I originally assumed what Dan's calls 'True Hard' would be opaque. But I'm not complaining. I wanted a rock with personality, and this certainly has it. It'd be nice to be able to hand pick one, but I'm probably 1200 miles or so away from Dan's so I have to rely on luck a bit.
I don't know what the technical terms are, but I consider there to be a pretty big difference between cracking and inclusions. Norton seems to cut away even inclusions now (some of the old stones have them, but maybe they have been dropped or had stresses, who knows?). Dans will sell stones with inclusions from time to time, but they are sold as seconds, and I like those because the inclusions have no effect on use and the stones are still the same super fine as the rest of their finishers.

I used to be able to get seconds more cheaply, though, I think their seconds page has become more popular. The black in the first picture on this page is a second due to some coloration on the opposite side, but it was about a hundred bucks (a screaming steal). A trans that I had and then sold had a dot on the back side of it and they sold it for $90 (also 8x2x1). Those days are gone!