Thread: Ebay Natural Mystery Hone finer and faster than Swaty

Something I've discovered concerning novaculite (Arkansas etc.) it that when put to a grind stone or abrasive belt, they will consistantly produce sparks. Not great big sparks such as when grinding a chisel but fine small sparks. This is of course a destructive test but you don't loose much. Arkansas stone is so hard on other abrasives, I've found they will quickly dress my grinding stone/abrasive wheels.

Looks alot like my unknown hone, Arkansas or Wachita (SP) stone. Mine was black from solidified oils, an hour of lapping with a 125 DMT plate got me this far

Good Lord, what in heavens name are they?

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

Looks alot like my unknown hone, Arkansas or Wachita (SP) stone. Mine was black from solidified oils, an hour of lapping with a 125 DMT plate got me this far

THE MAN!!

I went and looked up Wachita and found pics very close to what I have.
MUCH closer than any Arkansas stone pic I found

maybe different names for the same thing but probably a regional thing
no time to look it up now though

DC
try putting that stone on top of a rag in a pan
add water to cover
add some soap
bake @ 350 for one hour (or until clean)

give it a try

I don't know what the difference is between an Arkansas hone and a Washiła hone, although I do know that the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas have yielded hones

Washıta indeed comes from these mountains. Washıta and Arkansas are both novaculite stones, but distinct in character. Arkansas-type hones used to be devided into (from soft, coarse, unevenly coloured and expensive to hard, fine, uniformly coloured and more expensive) Washıta, soft Arkansas, hard Arkansas, black hard (or: surgical) Arkansas and translucent Arkansas (the latter two sometimes in reversed order) and within these divisions sometimes marketed according to colour (eg lily white Washıta).

See eg. The handyman's Book by Nooncree Hasluck p123 (Google book here), or Leonard Lee's Complete Guide to Sharpening p31 (with nice SEM illustrations of the particles)(Google book here). Recently someone posted a link to a very nice table showing classification, grit, density, colours. This is the link, but to my regret I can't remember who posted it or were (I just quickly bookmarked it to read later) - sorry for that!

Some members seem to have expert knowledge on these American hones and lots of information can be found in old threads. Most I know about them is directly or indirectly from this forum or one of the woodworker ones. I don't 'do' American natural hones - one has to impose some objective limit to control NHAD - though the recent interest in them hereabouts, and the beautiful pictures like in this thread are slowly massaging me towards reconsideration...

Too late maybe but the stone in the first post is a Hindostan/India stone.

That's not a Hindostan. It's a Hard Arkansas IMO. Is the OP even still around? This threads been dead two years.

Originally Posted by regularjoe

That's not a Hindostan. It's a Hard Arkansas IMO. Is the OP even still around? This threads been dead two years.

I have a very similar one, a bit smaller. You can come across it on ebay uk, it is sold under the name Hindostan. He says it is very hard, this also fits the description. Washita(the only possibility if it is from Arkansas) is not famous for being very hard, whereas Hindostan is.

All novaculite hones are very hard my friend. Even the ones they call Soft Arks are pretty darn hard. I wouldn't call it famous, but of the 15-25 I've flattened by hand, I can tell you ALL Arkansas stones are very hard. By contrast, the 3 hindostan stones I've lapped were fairly easy to flatten. Hindostans are characterized by distinct side banding, and a sedimentary composition. While Arkansas stones are made of novaculite, which is very hard. Please don't assume me condescending, but I believe you need to do a bit more research. The stone on the left is a Washita Arkansas stone, the one on the right is a Hindostan. I am willing to accept that I'm fallible here. So as always, this is just my opinion. If you don't accept what I'm telling you, I can tell you now, we won't convince each other otherwise. So we'll have to agree to disagree.