Thread: Got a box of 25 stones, need some ID help (cotis, and thuris, and Norton? Oh my!)

Nice collection, soaking in Simple Green or Awesome will get the naturals clean without damaging them. I would not soak the synthetics, especially the Norton.

For more Coticule info go to Coticule. Be or Razor and Stone. Razor & Stone used to have a good stone database with good photos, but I do not know if that site is still going. I was unable to log in last time I went there.

No. 23 looks interesting, some close-up photos would be helpful. Clearly it was well used. May be a much better stone than you think. The collector had a good eye and knew his stones.

Thanks for the tip on the simple green. Most things i just clean while lapping

On that note, i know lapping is not generally recommended on barber hones, unless really necessary. Unfortunately, that was the case with a few of these....including the Norton
It was dished by about .3mm,not a ton, but in 2 different spots on the stone, rather than just one smooth curve.
Probably not an issue if someone is going to sharpen an axe with it, but if i do end up selling it, i can't let it pass through my hands without at least trying it on a razor first and seeing what the fuss is about!
I'm following the instructions provided by Modine on lapping and reconditioning barber's hones.
The Norton is just about done, looking and feeling amazing so far, just needs a little more burnishing at the higher grits.
I know, many will think i'm a lunatic for not just immediately flipping it, but the way i see it, I'll never go and buy another, and stones are meant to be used

I had tried going to Razor & Stone the other day, but everything says access denied on all the links. Tried signing up for an account and it keeps telling me I failed the Captcha verification, even though there isn't one anywhere on the sign up page?? So I gave up. Might try emailing an admin later.

You make a good point about the rest of the collection, in relation to stone 23.
I'll have to get some simple green and clean it up, and see about getting more pics once cleaned

“Don't know, don't care lol Just a soft, medium grit, brown stone that's dished to hell and back. It'll end up in the shop for rough, imprecise sharpening tasks”

I’m thinking, possible Jnat?

Hard to tell from the photos, but he did collect some fine stones, and somebody like it, a lot.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

“Don't know, don't care lol Just a soft, medium grit, brown stone that's dished to hell and back. It'll end up in the shop for rough, imprecise sharpening tasks”

I’m thinking, possible Jnat?

Hard to tell from the photos, but he did collect some fine stones, and somebody like it, a lot.

I'll be visiting home depot tonight after work for the Simple Green!
All I can say for now is that it appears to be a pretty consistent light brown color with darker speckles on the clean-ish worn areas. Definitely an oiled stone. And one end was either left unfinished, or this broke off a larger piece many, many, many years ago.
If I had to guess, I'd say the surface feels below 1k, but that's just a guess on a dirty stone for now

A couple cell phone pics for now, will take better ones once it's cleaned (the photo equipment is packed away at the moment)

Originally Posted by Euclid440

No. 23 looks interesting,

I didn't get a chance today to drag out all the photo equipment (one of these days I'll set up a small light box so that's much less of a chore for small items like this)
But the simple green did clean it up pretty well, it's much lighter than I thought.
And the two ends and one side that I thought were just extra grimy appear to actually have been sealed. The second long side was not, because it's been used for sharpening

Then I started messing around with it, and now I'm more confused than ever lol
A stone THIS dished, i assumed it would be quite soft. I thought I would do just a little lapping on one side, to see how clean the surface was compared to fresh stone underneath, and this thing is super hard! Without a fair amount of pressure, it just skates across the coarse DMT.
Then I decided to sacrifice a mirror polish I just put on a test chisel, because the stone still feels fairly coarse, and i wanted to see what sort of a scratch pattern it leaves.
This stone is fast...black streaks after a couple strokes, and pushing a burr in no time. I wouldn't say it left a perfect razor's edge, but it tugs hair above the surface and cuts it with a little pressure at skin level.
And as for the scratch pattern? I don't entirely know how to describe it...the steel looks more smudged than scratched, if that makes any sense?
Still polished enough to read in the reflection, but it's hazy, almost like a fogged mirror.

Suffice it to say, I'm quite intrigued by this stone now, thanks for encouraging me to give it another look.
Will try to get those pics soon.

In the mean time, i got bored watching tv tonight and decided to start lapping another stone

10) Unmarked natural stone 122x62x20mm Gray with a greenish tint, very fine, pretty dished. No clue on this, will lap it eventually to see if it's anything decent

I rubbed a rough chisel across this one the other day, just to see how it felt, and a couple chips in the chisel left nasty scratches, with very little pressure. This one is SUPER soft.

But that's not the interesting part.
Here's what i found after a bit of lapping


First off, whoever owned these stones couldn't stop dropping his wrist to save his life. Every one that is dished also has a hump in the middle and low sides. Going to lose a lot of stone if I want to take this all the way to flat.

But it's the dark diagonal streaks that are interesting here.
They don't show up well until there's bright light on them (like the flash in this crappy cell phone pic)
Under normal light, i can only see them from one direction. If i lay the stone flat on the table and spin it 360 degrees, they disappear from view for more than 3/4 of the rotation
They aren't continuous lines, just a bunch of narrow, short, tapered streaks all heading in the same direction...tiger stripes is the only thing that comes to mind.

Does that mean anything to anyone?


P.S.
This is how a broken edge looks on this one, if that helps at all

Finally got around to taking a couple cleaned up pics of stone #23 tonight. As I said in an earlier post, this got MUCH whiter after cleaning. Still speckled.


Also, for such a badly dished stone, this thing is insanely hard. Makes a noise like ceramic knocking against the DMT plate, or similar to a couple hard Arkansas stones clacking together.
The DMT coarse stone barely touched it, took quite a bit of pressure to get it to cut at all.
And this is the only stone I've ever seen that got darker on the lapped bits (see second pic above, and close up below)


Now that it's cleaned, the un-lapped surface feels to my fingers like something in the 1k range.
The lapped part feels much finer and is somewhat reflective. (note: my DMT coarse is getting pretty worn, probably not really a "coarse" anymore)
The finish it leaves is nicely polished, but also sort of evenly hazy. Only slightly less hazy on the lapped section)

I'm really not sure at this point. After doing a bunch of digging around online, I'm wondering about Washita maybe?
But then, i think they're supposed to be softer and coarser than this?

What are you lapping with?

You can get a 140-diamond lapping plate from Chef Knives to Go for $30. It is a great diamond plate that can take a beating. Great for lapping stones flat, then smooth with 300 ish plate.

Yea, not Jnat one 23, the rounded corners looks like a sythe stone. Looks like the owner was a knife sharpener, from the wear on the stones edges.

That is a wahita. Probably a hard/fine one. I have one that can do a light bevel set all the way to 7kish. Very wide range on some of those.
Use loose SIC on those to save your diamond plate. Washitas and Arks can eat up diamond plates. Even good ones! Just finish with the plate because Atoma flat is real! Lol!

Those corners were done quick on a well worn DMT coarse. I have Granite/glass and SIC powders that I've been using, just didn't feel like dealing with the mess for a quick test on this one

I gotta disagree on the synthetic guess.
Do you see the faint white lines in the closeup pic?
I originally mistook them for scratches, but they're not. They're streaks in the stone, they run all the way through to the other side.

Visible here running through the edge


I haven't got back to play with it anymore, got distracted messing with stone #10...then got distracted from that by working on finishing the restoration of the antique chisel I was using as my test steel lol