Thread: Interesting old oilstone

Found this on a shelf in a garage, with an old can rusting on top of it. You can still see the ring. I gave it a quick clean, and a fast flatten.
A middle grit stone, I would guess in the 3-4k range? Would certainly perform better with an oil, but I dont keep any of that stuff to try it out with.
The original sticker on the end list it as a Berea Abrasives Natural oilstone, catalog no Ns 3
BA was a division of Cleveland Quarries, which still exists today, though it seems no longer producing stones as abrasives, just for building. The BA brand apparently stretched from the turn of the last century all the way up to the early 60s, so I can only speculate this to be around the 40s-late 50s bases on the font syle of the label.
Anybody with more info on these sandstone type hones, or experience honing with one, I would love to hear more.

There is the Ohio Blue stone and the Queer Creek by Norton that where sold as bench stones and I'm sure others I have never heard of. I don't know what all the differences are between them but some stone was more prized for abrasives then others.
I am pretty familiar with the old Berea sandstone wheels. I have seen a little bit of difference in the softness in them old wheels with the more friable being a little faster but I think most are really close in the finish or grit. The uninitiated think they can grind something with those wheels but are usually surprised to find that they don't grind to well at all but excel at putting a fairly fine edge on axe's, shovels, scythes and about any rough use tool that needed sharpened. I also find uses for the broken stones, turning them into bench stones or axe pucks. No need for oil water works just fine but they are thirsty.

Originally Posted by Desrtrat

There is the Ohio Blue stone and the Queer Creek by Norton that where sold as bench stones and I'm sure others I have never heard of. I don't know what all the differences are between them but some stone was more prized for abrasives then others.
I am pretty familiar with the old Berea sandstone wheels. I have seen a little bit of difference in the softness in them old wheels with the more friable being a little faster but I think most are really close in the finish or grit. The uninitiated think they can grind something with those wheels but are usually surprised to find that they don't grind to well at all but excel at putting a fairly fine edge on axe's, shovels, scythes and about any rough use tool that needed sharpened. I also find uses for the broken stones, turning them into bench stones or axe pucks. No need for oil water works just fine but they are thirsty.

I have a Queer Creek as well, and Im going to say this is a finer stone. For the tools they were used on at the time, it likely would have been considered by the average user as a finishing stone. If you go to the Cleveland Quarries web page, they list two different colors of Berea stone, with different properties to them. If anyone is interested, Ill add it to this thread

Dug up a little more on the Ohio sandstones.

Chagvin Falls, Cuyahoga County
The Deerlick Stone was quarried in this area. Most likely a fine-grained sandstone

Waverley Geological Group
Berea sandstone quarries are the largest sandstone quarries in the world, and the stone itself is famed for it's even texture and lack of impurities. The best layers of Berea Grit were saved for making world-famous grindstones which required a smooth and even texture, neither too soft nor too hard. These layers also had to be completely free from cracks, flaws, foreign objects, or hard spots. Furthermore, stones to be shaped into grindstones or whetstones had to be easily split into the desired sizes.

Euclid Stone
Blue, very-fine grit sandstone. History of use for Butcher's Knives and Penknives.

Queer Creek Stone
Hard dark-grey medium coarse sandstone. Used as a waterstone for coarse sharpening.


Norton sells an Ohio Blue stone. They also put a Queer creek label on it to further confuse. I wonder if the Norton Ohio blue isn't the old Elucid and what about the old Queer creek stone is it the same as the Berea grind stones?

Originally Posted by Desrtrat

Dug up a little more on the Ohio sandstones.

Chagvin Falls, Cuyahoga County
The Deerlick Stone was quarried in this area. Most likely a fine-grained sandstone

Waverley Geological Group
Berea sandstone quarries are the largest sandstone quarries in the world, and the stone itself is famed for it's even texture and lack of impurities. The best layers of Berea Grit were saved for making world-famous grindstones which required a smooth and even texture, neither too soft nor too hard. These layers also had to be completely free from cracks, flaws, foreign objects, or hard spots. Furthermore, stones to be shaped into grindstones or whetstones had to be easily split into the desired sizes.

Euclid Stone
Blue, very-fine grit sandstone. History of use for Butcher's Knives and Penknives.

Queer Creek Stone
Hard dark-grey medium coarse sandstone. Used as a waterstone for coarse sharpening.


Norton sells an Ohio Blue stone. They also put a Queer creek label on it to further confuse. I wonder if the Norton Ohio blue isn't the old Elucid and what about the old Queer creek stone is it the same as the Berea grind stones?

Euclid Blues.... Yea, you can get that in Ohio
But now I'm super curious.... Whos got one?!?

Originally Posted by Magpie

Euclid Blues.... Yea, you can get that in Ohio
But now I'm super curious.... Whos got one?!?

I'm curious too. Surely some guys here have these stones maybe they will chip in?

Cleveland though......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM