Emerald green hone?

I have been looking for a Charnley Forest as a finisher for a while but the end price is just to high for me right now with summer coming up.
Yesterday I snagged this beautiful stone of the bay pretty cheap. It was described as green slate wetstone oilstone and it seems like there is oil residue on the surface.

I know CF is not slate but on the other hand I have no idea what slate is supposed to look like. It doesn't seem to have the characteristic purple streaks that is common to CF so I don't believe it's that. So what are everyones thought about what it can be based on the pictures. Charnley Forest, Llyn Idwal, Cutler's green, unknown welsh slate or something else?

One more thing, if it is oil on the surface and the stone can't be removed from the box what would be the best way to clean it?

There'd be nothing wrong with continuing to use it as an oilstone. Just lap it flat with SiC paper on a tile, or with a diamond plate, and finish your razors on the hone with light mineral oil.

A lot of people get hung up with the name and source of various hones. I contend that the honing characteristics of a specific stone are far more important than the name or source of the hone. Is the stone suitable for honing razors? If so, where in the honing sequence does the hone best fit? As long as the stone fills a role in your honing sequence, it is a valid part of your tool kit. Since you are looking for a finishing hone, hopefully your new acquisition will fill that need.

Yeah, I hope so to.
The name really doesn't matter for me either, it's just that with my little experience I would at least know if I bought a Charnley that it was a finishing stone.
But if it isn't a finisher it wasn't a lot of money and I guess I can use it to sharpen my kitchen knives.

Let's see pictures of it cleaned, lapped and wet and dry, then we can advise! Could well be a CF or LI. Nobody knows what a Cutlers Green looks like. It is referred to in various ancient British literature but I could never ascertain exactly what it is, or find one. I gave up! Happy with Thuringians. Lately, I have been happy with DE blades in a shavette, too!

Will do once it has arrived. Hopefully it's not glued to solid to the base and it is possible to get it out so I can see the full stone.

PMH, even if it is glued to the base, you can remove it by pre-heating the oven to around 150 and leaving it in there for around 5 minutes. This melts the glue and it should easily be removed.

I hope its as fine a stone as your looking for. Its so hard to tell when buying used rocks on line. I can just never pull the trigger. You just cant tell much until you get them in your hands and put some steal on them. Good luck and let us see it cleaned up and a report on how it feels.

Will do.
I have a Heljestrand MK30 waiting for it. Will try and find a decent USB microscope as well so I can see what happens with the scratch pattern.

It arrived today and I think it might actually be a Charnley after all.
Lapped it and got most of the oil out, smelled like WD-40. The cut out in the box is made after the stone so there is no corner in the box were it is missing on the stone.

Here are some picture of it dry and wet.
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That is a Charnley or LI. If you can find any fleck or stripe or red, however small, it is 100% Charnley. Without examination and testing, it could be either. Looking at it, there may be an inclusion. You have to test it to understand whether it is a pinny inclusion (which could harm a razor) or just a superficial one.

There are quite a few red specks and streaks.

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It really doesn't matter if it's a CF or not but as I said earlier if it is I at least know it's a finisher. Will have to test it though.
As for the oil residue, do I need to continue to use it with oil?

I'd say its a Charnley. Remember, not all are finishers, some I have heard are in the 8k region, which some consider to be a finisher, whilst others consider this range to be that of a pre-finisher. The many Charnleys I have tested however, have all been finishers. One gave a wildly sharp edge. I believe they work better with oil or glycerin. Or even with lather. They are oil stones, after all. Some prefer just water. YMMV. Enjoy, and congratulations on your find! I look forward to hearing how you get on with it.

Oil it is then. :)
Will probably have an opportunity next week to try it out on a MK30.

The MK30 would IMHO be a very good choice, as the steel I believe is harder than Sheffield Steel, for instance. IMHO, not all edges can take very fine Charnleys, or rather, are not improved/can be hurt by them. An example of this would be some British razors. Ironic, that a British hone isn't always great for British razors! You may not have known, but these large Charnleys and LI hones were as far as I can tell, never intended for, nor used for razors of their era. Rather, they were kept heavily oiled and used for chisels and other tools. The only reference I can find to the use of Charnley or other type of novaculite for razors, is for Rolls Razors, which was rare at that.

Honed and shaved with it today and it's definitely a finisher.
It keept the sharpness coming of 1u lapping film but mellowed the edge out a bit. The shave wasn't as smooth as I would have liked but I got impatient and shaved before showering which I usually don't do.

Just a question? How much oil are you supposed to use? Just enough to wet the surface or so much you create a wave when honing?

On my hard oilstones I just make sure the oil is evenly spread, no oil wave. Let the oil do it's job. Just my 02. cents!

How many laps did you do? These stones are extremely slow in my experience.

Note sure, may by around 150?
Still waiting for my microscope so I can take a closer look at the scratch patterns.

150 sounds about right! I haven't used a Charnley for a long time, but I remember they give very little feedback and one really has to know the stone and have experience with them as IMHO it hardly lets one know when the razor is 'done'. Thuringians and coticules which I use predominantly, are polar opposites. Small, soft and swift.
Possibly not always as fine though. They also readily raise a slurry. Some even auto slurry.

Got my pocket microscope today and compared the scratch pattern of my phig and my CF. The scratches from the charnley seem to be more even and not as deep as the phig. The edge was also more even or "straighter".

It is extremely slow though but since I only own a few razors I don't mind.

Sounds like ya found a winner. Dense Novaculite is a great finisher, does tend to leave a blade a bit in the sharp/nippy side. Especially if used with oil, imo that puts you about at the peak of what the stone can do. But on the bright side, you can switch to a thin shave lather rather than oil or just strop it a few more laps than you otherwise might to calm the edge down a bit.

I noticed earlier you were asking about oil. Dense Novaculite isn't terribly porous, so the oil likely hasn't penetrated far. If you want to clean it up, toss it in a bath of Simple Green (or similar degreaser) and let it soak for a day or two. I've got a vintage yellow lake that was used as an oil stone likely for decades before it fell into my hands. You wouldn't know it now.