11 Attachment(s)
Got a box of 25 stones, need some ID help (cotis, and thuris, and Norton? Oh my!)
Had a once in a lifetime find at a garage sale last week! Short version is that I now own an additional 25 stones and 40 straights :rock:
(including a W&B FBU, 9/8 near wedge... But that's another topic)
I'm hoping to find some help identifying a few things here, starting with the hones.
Overall pics of fronts, backs, and sides and info I have so far below
Questions and additional pics below that
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- Exide 87x50x7mm - smells/feels oily
- Franz Swaty 130x52x13mm "Three line" barber's hone
- Norton 130x55x15mm - red/black combo stone Update: i think this is the infamous "crazy axe hone"?? Will get some closeup pics later
- Congo No. 4 - D. F. Politi & Co. Boston Mass 112x51x15mm - New in box/wrapped, missing lid. (see more below)
- American Hone Co. Olean, NY - "Moss" 70x50x15mm
- Possible Escher? (see more below) 178x37x19mm
- Possible Thuringian? (see more below) 127x62x20mm
- Coti 86x51x25mm (see more below)
- Coti 196x68x30mm (see more below)
- 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
- Rubbinit 600 (broken) 124x40x17mm
- No markings 150x50x15mm Dark grey, looks synthetic, feels medium-fine
- No markings 100x50x10mm Reddish-brown synthetic, looks/feels similar to the Swaty
- American Hone Co, Olean NY 87x49x8mm Light Gray with oily residue on top
- No markings 150x50x20mm Red/black combo stone, smells oily
- identical to 15 - Update: gifted to a friend
- No markings 120x50x8mm Red/Black combo stone, smells oily
- No clue - there is definitely something stamped on the side, but it needs a good cleaning, i can't make out what it says. 200x53x19mm Feels like it may just be a fine carborundum - Update: Solved. After cleaning up the side i could partially read the original stamp ".....ndum Hone no 105". So this is, in fact, a Carborundum Hone. A single grit SIC oil stone.
- Unmarked hard Arkansas (darker than the 2 Norton labeled ones below) 122x46x24mm - Update: gifted to a friend
- Norton Hard Arkansas 122x49x24mm
- Norton Hard Arkansas 126x50x10mm
- Unknown synthetic 115x73x14mm Light grey, light weight, marked "C400 R V". It's certainly a coarser stone, though I wouldn't have guessed as low as 400 grit, but I can't imagine what else that could mean
- 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
- Mystery stone 83x50x14mm (see more below)
- Unknown - has a label, but can't read it. Stamp on the other side is just for the distributer. 112x52x15mm Tan/Brown combo stone Update: I'm wondering now if this is a Frictionite no 00, after partially lapping it. I'll have to take some new pics
#4
Attachment 323204
Not sure what this is, but it's brand new, still wrapped in paper, with the above two notes wrapped with it.
Only have the bottom half of the box (dark blue), no lid.
Haven't found any info on it yet, only thing I've found so far is that the small paper above matches a paper someone has with a frictionite stone....this clearly isn't that, but maybe it's an American Hone Co stone of some sort?
#24 Mystery Stone 83x50x14mm
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Really not sure on this one. I thought it was a small coti slurry stone at first, but it was very grimy.
When i went to lap it, it stinks! The dark side smells like...patchouli maybe? The light side smells similar, but with sulfer mixed in.
The long sides look 100% like a perfectly straight glue up or synthetic combo stone, but the short ends are very uneven at the transitions.
One end shows it was obviously cut down from a larger stone, by hand, with a hacksaw, sloppily.
Both surfaces full of micro-cracks.
Pics shown partially lapped, to show discoloration (lighter center is fresh lapped, dark edges are original color)
I'm thinking some old synthetic stone, but the foul smells make me leary about what may be in it...?
#6 & #7
Thuringian/Escher?
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I've never handled an Escher before, but the coloring on this reminded me of reading about them in the past.
Then i noticed that this scrap of a label left on the end of the skinny one looks identical to the border found on some of the Escher labels I've seen online. Particularly, this old German label here
Escher's and Thuringian's Found in the Wild
Am I reaching? Or is that a reasonable guess?
The reason I'm thinking the wider stone is "related" is that these two stones have a very similar look/feel to eachother, and the pattern to the layers from the side view look strikingly similar.
The long skinny one is lighter with green hue leaning towards the warmer (yellow) end of the spectrum, while the wider one is slightly darker with a green hue leaning towards cooler (blue).
It's my understanding that Eschers were just a branded version of select Thuringian slate. Based on that, I'm thinking the skinny one with the label scrap could be an actual Escher, and the wide one with no label residue would (in theory) just be an unmarked Thuringian slate?
#8 & #9
Large and Small Coticules
I have very limited experience with coticules (i own one other), and am hoping that someone more knowledgable can help me with identifying these two.
I have my best guesses for each below the pics, using info found in this pdf doc that i found through another forum :
http://bosq.home.xs4all.nl/info 20m/grinding_and_honing_part_4_belgian_whetstones.pd
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The obvious flaw here is that the article only discusses a handful of types....but coticule.be isn't exactly set up for easily searching by identifiable criteria
Small coticule, natural combo - 86x51x25mm
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I'm thinking maybe La Nouvelle based on the sharp transition lines into the Rouge de Salm, and the overall smoothly colored surface, with just the lightest hint of blue-ish/grey marbling in places.
But I'm not very convinced, based on the darkness of the color
It seems rather large for a slurry stone, but the heavily tapered ends would imply that's all it was used for, and I'd have no intention of changing that.
At any rate, i love that extra little strip of coticule layer down in the Rouge, gives it some nice character
Large Coticule, natural combo AND glued layer -
196x68x30mm
Attachment 323210
First off, let me just say this stone is a beast! Lol
Clocks in at 2lb 10oz, or 1,185 grams
Based on that pdf, I'm guessing this to be a thick piece of La Dressante, containing both the La Dressante au Bleu and the La Dressante Upper Layer mentioned in the doc.
This side shot will show why. There are two distinctly different colored layers in the coticule layer, lighter on top and darker near the transition line.
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The surface has very faint white streaks in it that didn't show up very well in the photos.
The parts that look like cracks are black and reddish-orange veins (can't be felt when honing)
The slurry is very creamy, and seems to hold up for a while.
Tested first on an old sheffield steel chisel, and it cut very fast on a thick slurry, turning black after just a couple strokes.
Tested on a W&B razor it seemed reasonable fast on slurry, very slow on water, left a comfortably smooth edge with the unicot method (even considering I'm WAY out of practice on honing, and didn't have a huge amount of experience using coticules in the past)
Stone gives quite a lot of feedback, in both feel and sound.
Pics show it only partially lapped, haven't flattened right to the very ends yet... May not waste the stone by doing that anyway, there's still plenty of surface area there for now.
If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to look!
Really hoping for some help on the ones that are pictured individually, but open to any info anyone has on the rest as well!
Thanks in advance
