Thread: Hone I.D. please

Just to clarify, the figure is actually in the stone and not just dried slurry? If it is, then Oldengaerde most likely nailed it with the Dalmore Blue. As far as the colour is concerned, whilst it's known as the Dalmore Blue it's actually a pale grey sandstone. Your description of it's "glitteryness" certainly fits with the DB, or any other sandstone for that matter, as well. OTOH, I certainly wouldn't say that the DB was particularly hard, even allowing for natural variation. Also, you seem to be fairly knowledgable when it comes to hones, but when you say that this stone is fine could you clarify just how fine you think it is. I wouldn't think that the DB could ever be classed as very fine. You say you have a couple of Dragon's Tongue hones, I would think that these are most likely to be finer than any DB. So, either you have a one in a million Dalmore Blue, or it's something else.

On the subject of your girlfirend's Scottish family, it may be well worth your while calling in a professional negotiator, as there are some nice stones coming from Scotland which would be well worth checking out. As well as the stones coming from The Tam O Shanter & Water of Ayr Honeworks, particularly the rarer White TOS, there are a couple of very interesting hones from elsewhere. Enterkine Quarry, also in Ayrshire, produced a pale-grey and very hard mudstone. Mudstones should have an abrasive particle size <0.005 mm so would be very fine. Also, there is a laminated marble, extracted from the bed of the River Fiddich in Banffshire, which sounds promising.

Kindest regards,
Alex

Originally Posted by A_S

Just to clarify, the figure is actually in the stone and not just dried slurry? If it is, then Oldengaerde most likely nailed it with the Dalmore Blue. As far as the colour is concerned, whilst it's known as the Dalmore Blue it's actually a pale grey sandstone. Your description of it's "glitteryness" certainly fits with the DB, or any other sandstone for that matter, as well. OTOH, I certainly wouldn't say that the DB was particularly hard, even allowing for natural variation. Also, you seem to be fairly knowledgable when it comes to hones, but when you say that this stone is fine could you clarify just how fine you think it is. I wouldn't think that the DB could ever be classed as very fine. You say you have a couple of Dragon's Tongue hones, I would think that these are most likely to be finer than any DB. So, either you have a one in a million Dalmore Blue, or it's something else.

On the subject of your girlfirend's Scottish family, it may be well worth your while calling in a professional negotiator, as there are some nice stones coming from Scotland which would be well worth checking out. As well as the stones coming from The Tam O Shanter & Water of Ayr Honeworks, particularly the rarer White TOS, there are a couple of very interesting hones from elsewhere. Enterkine Quarry, also in Ayrshire, produced a pale-grey and very hard mudstone. Mudstones should have an abrasive particle size <0.005 mm so would be very fine. Also, there is a laminated marble, extracted from the bed of the River Fiddich in Banffshire, which sounds promising.

Kindest regards,
Alex

The hardness and the fineness deviating from my personal experience with the Dalmore Blue is what is causing me to pause a bit as well, Alex. "Hardness" and "fineness" are subjective terms to the degree of comparison available to each individual based on each individual's hone collection.

Chris L

The figuring is most definitely in the stone, you can just about make it out running through the side in the pic. It's very pretty

As for hardness, it's the hardest stone I have had to lap. Far harder than my thuringian, dragon's tongue BBW/Coti combo and coti. I know these aren't really that hard in the hone world but none of these ate wet and dry paper like this! The other stones took less than an hour to lap, whereas this one took several hours and I would be surprised if I removed more than 1mm at the most.
I used about 10 sheets of 240 grit w&d, before trying 150 grit 3m sandblaster paper just to remove a few scratches and to try and lap out the chips in the edge you can see in the ebay pic. I gave up that as I wasn't getting very far and resorted to bevelling the edges to get the chips out instead!

This stone is fantastic if you want to remove the abrasive from wet and dry paper!

Fineness? Well here I am certainly no expert, and I have only played with it a little, but seemed to work magic om my favourite ERN Ator as a finisher.

I just tried it on another razor that had a very shiny bevel from playing with diamond film and chrome oxide and it seemed to leave little, if any, scratches visible with my magnifying glass (well actually it's a 12x linen tester) whereas my thuringian does leave very fine marks. The surface of the stone has started to develop a very slight sheen.

There is I suppose the possibility the stone is doing next to nothing at all?

I think I need a more powerful magnifier, otherwise all I can tell you is that it's finer than a thuringian. I cannot see the scratches from this stone or the DT with my glass but they both remove the ones from the thury, albeit slowly!

Most of the Thuringen type hones I have, with the exception of one of those Hunsrueck stones, are relatively soft and cotis are just too variable to make any hard and fast rules about their general hardness, but your stone still sounds much harder than any of the DB's I have. None of them took a great deal of effort to lap, and they certainly didn't eat through that much sandpaper either.

As far as the fineness is concerned, I use my Dalmore Blue after setting a bevel with 1k and 2k Bester stones. The Dalmore takes out the scratches from these stones quite quickly and whilst it sets the foundation for a nice polish on the edge I still follow with a Tam before an 8K synthetic. There's no way my Dalmore Blues would leave a finer edge under magnification than a Thuringen. If you ran a finished edge over a DB, you'd certainly see it's effect so I don't think the stone isn't doing anything at all. Ultimately if you enjoy it, and it seems to work very well for you, the stone's origins aren't that important ( although I have to admit that I find it very frustrating when I can't i.d some of my own stones).

My best guess, the figure is certainly diagnostic of a Dalmore Blue and maybe you got lucky and found one that was the result of some random geological event, such as increased heat or pressure, that elevated it's performance.

Kindest regards,
Alex

That's interesting that you follow the DB with a Tam, Alex. If I was going for a Scottish hone progression I would reach for the Tam first.

Chris L

I followed Joe Chandler's advice of using the DB before a TOS/ Norton 8k pyramid. I stopped using the pyramid and went for a progressive method of honing and finally ended up using a Dalmore Blue, Tam O Shanter w/ slurry and then an Akatsuki 8K synthetic, instead of the Norton, before going onto the finishing stone of choice. I find the TOS to be both finer and slower than the DB.

Kindest regards,
Alex

Originally Posted by A_S

I find the TOS to be both finer and slower than the DB.

+1. As recommended by Randydance the TOS with slurry followed by water. I too us the blue first if I am doing a Scot's hone thing.