Thread: The X-Hones

Why not!?! Anything we're not completely sure about.

I'm curious about the ones beenpickin posted.
Didn't Oldengaerde have one like that in the "not a piece of wood" thread?

Yes, the similarity is striking. That one was tentatively identified as a Dalmore Yellow. Quite a lot of senior members and hone aficionados will attend the Mid-MO meeting; I'm looking forward to their expert judgement of Beenpickin's hones.

About the greenish one: I'm quite sure it isn't a Charnley Forest. None of my CF's nor any of the CF' I've seen so far have an exactly regular rectangular shape. The top is mostly wider than the bottom, the width often tapers a bit towards the ends, and (even quite large) imperfections along the edge are common.

Also, although the texture can be uneven, if it is, it is so in an irregular way; usually in streaks or patches, often with a bit of purplish red, never in a more or less regular mottled sort of way.

Lastly, upon close inspection CF's seem to be made of an inherently translucent material that 'just happens to be' very densly coloured. I cannot quite explain, but it is not unlike glazed porcelain. It is the sensation that you seem to be able to look into the stone to a certain minute depth. Chips are similar to glazed porcelain ones too, in the sense that they have white rims and fracture shapes like glass or flint, only more irregular.

Oh glad you brought this on.
Got sidetracked this morning,

I'm sorry if I gave the impression that the yellow hones were very fine. It is only the taupe/biege hone I wished to indicate was a finisher. While the yellow hones appear to vary considerably, except for the white example they are fairly aggressive and capable of quickly producing a keen edge on my stainless cutlery.
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I had forgotten about my other X hone which I finally lapped. Much softer than any Arkansas but still very hard and fine. At this point I haven't used it and come to any conclusions concerning its abilities. Sorry to bore those that have seen it in many other postings. And yes, except for one yellow that has found a new home they will all be at Mid-Mo.

That is a beauty!
Never seen before - neither here nor anywhere else. Thank you!

Beautiful stone I must say. Let us know what you think what get to trying it

Must have missed this thread the other day, so I started an ID help thread over in advanced honing. Someone suggested I move it over here.

I don't want to clutter up the place with duplicate pics, so they can be found in my thread here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...lp-please.html

This stone feels very smooth to the touch and produced a cream/gray slurry when I tried to lap it with sandpaper. This stone is HARD. It ate up about 6 sheets of 220 grit wet/dry and I believe another 3 of 400 before I quit and ordered a DMT coarse.

The DMT should be here tomorrow, so I will post more pics once it's thoroughly lapped. It was a dark blueish-gray color but turned a light grayish-white on the parts that I did get lapped.

I would like to know what stone it is obviously, but barring that I'm also wondering if someone would be able to suggest where in the honing process it should be used. I ordered a Norton 4k/8k with the DMT and was planning on using this mystery hone after the 8k. I'm going to feel them both and see if this hone is really as smooth as it seems to be.

Hi Mudkipz!
Well to me it also looks like an Arkansas.
Beautiful one, too. They do make a slurry when you try hard enough
and a nice addition to your setup.

Well Arkansas seems to be the consensus, now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

Is it a finishing stone? It seems pretty fine.

Yes, it is a finishing stone.
Very fine and very slow.