Thread: Please help me identify this misty hone.

I stumbled on this stone the other day, it was embedded in a wooden box, the glue was probably shellac, I had to disassemble the box to get it out, it was covered with grime and was dished but now it’s nice and clean.
The dishing wasn’t too bad… maybe about 1/16th inch, so at first I thought ...”oh I’ll be done in a few minutes”… after the 8 hours I almost gave up on this cursed thing, but I wasn’t about to let it get the better of me, though I think it may have taken a few days off the rest of my life…

-It is about 8”x2”x1”
-Cream colored and almost yellow when wet.
-It is hard… very hard… probably harder than most barber hones.
-Difficult to produce slurry because it’s so hard, but when it does it is cream or white.
-Puts a fine edge on my razor, a comfortable shave, the scratch pattern looks “hazy” but easily polished on the strop.
-Lots of feedback, you can feel “drag” when honing which gets heavier as the edge sharpens… I would say it’s a pleasure to hone with this… like driving a sports car.

I believe this is a natural hone and I have included photos of the unfinished underside of the hone… maybe this was at one end of the vein.

So here is the question… what manner of beast is this?

BTW… the thread title was supposed to be "... mystery hone", but sadly I am unable to correct.

Very nice looking stone. Maybe it's the fabled Turkey Oil Stone of ages past? Given that you say it's so hard like that I would make an assumption that it's a novaculite stone of some kind. There are many varieties of Novaculite stones on the planet and the "Arkansas stones" are just one small group of Novaculite stones.

Chris L

Beautiful hone. What were using to lap it? Sandpaper, DMT, DGLP???

What grit would you give it?

chrisl is righ.most like some kinda arkansas stone. what is it i can say it is course for straight razor.You can sharpen but not for final touch

Originally Posted by ChrisL

Very nice looking stone. Maybe it's the fabled Turkey Oil Stone of ages past? Given that you say it's so hard like that I would make an assumption that it's a novaculite stone of some kind. There are many varieties of Novaculite stones on the planet and the "Arkansas stones" are just one small group of Novaculite stones.

Chris L

Thanks Chris, it is indeed a beautiful stone it has a mozzarella cheese color with darker shades of grain across the width of the stone, that I fond unusual as most natural stones I have seen, the grain runs the length of the stone.
But following on your hint I did some research on the Turkey, this stone is indeed as dense as the Turkey, it cuts fast and does not need to be lapped as often as a water stone, however it is said the Turkey is white, gray or black, and variants of brown and blue shades and though this stone is yellow it may be an uncommon variant of the Turkey or Arkansas.
I am still researching so we will see.

Originally Posted by ZethLent

Beautiful hone. What were using to lap it? Sandpaper, DMT, DGLP???

What grit would you give it?

Ahhh my friend, they don’t call me “Cheap Mad Scientist” for nothing.
220 grit silicon carbide powder and a glass plate makes a most effective lapping solution, it takes but a pinch of the stuff on the plate with a few drops of water and the most stubborn stones will bleed slurry.
8oz 220 grit SIC powder… $9
12”x12” glass plate… $5
Lifetime of easy lapping hard stones… priceless.

Clean by brushing soft stones thoroughly after use.

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

chrisl is righ.most like some kinda arkansas stone. what is it i can say it is course for straight razor.You can sharpen but not for final touch

Oh well now, I do hope it is, because if it’s Arkansas, then I aught to try a few others.
For my attempt at this type of (final) hone the shave was surprisingly comfortable, I wouldn’t say it was my best shave but I attribute that to my experience with this hone… who knows, there my be variants of Arkansas that rival the best of any other natural or artificial hone and we just don’t know it yet.

Originally Posted by smythe

Ahhh my friend, they don’t call me “Cheap Mad Scientist” for nothing.
220 grit silicon carbide powder and a glass plate makes a most effective lapping solution, it takes but a pinch of the stuff on the plate with a few drops of water and the most stubborn stones will bleed slurry.
8oz 220 grit SIC powder… $9
12”x12” glass plate… $5
Lifetime of easy lapping hard stones… priceless.

Clean by brushing soft stones thoroughly after use.

I did this with a spyderco UF, it seemed to work well. I started with 60 grit, though, then moved up to 220+. I also used a big marble tile instead of a plate. I actually ended up resurfacing most of the marble tile getting that hone lapped... and its about 2 feet square...

Didn't know you could do this with soft stones, I was worried the grit would embed itself.

I have a stone similiar to this one. I too fell for the done in a sec with a dmt xxc and boy was I wrong. It cuts really fast, gives a milky slurry and leaves a hazy finish just like smythe mentioned his did. So if anyone has a clue to what it is I would really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Memorael

I have a stone similiar to this one. I too fell for the done in a sec with a dmt xxc and boy was I wrong. It cuts really fast, gives a milky slurry and leaves a hazy finish just like smythe mentioned his did. So if anyone has a clue to what it is I would really appreciate it.

I believe I saw a photo of your stone on another site and as I recall it has layers visible from the side. I have several or more of these yellow/rusty slurry producing stones with layers but still no clue as to what they are. They also cut fast, produce a hazy finish and have become my go to finish hone for cutlery. My nephew recently brought me one more, short and thick. I'm also anxious to find out what these are.