Thread: Any guesses as to what this is?

It actually seems to darken a little with use.

Also, lavender was refering to the color, not scent.

Yeah, microsandblasted is a good way to describe the edge it puts. The white on the edges in pictures is slurry that slid off without getting used and dried.

Do you still think it's a coticule? I was under the impression that coticule slurry made the stone cut quite roughly, in the 2k range?

The last pic is a good representation of the stone in person (when dry). Yellowish with tan and dark grey hairs crackles and speckles all over the surface.

It looks identical to my Arkansas the edge from my arkansas sounds like what you describe also but as I said, mine is as hard as a witches teat which seems to be the major difference here

Yeah, everything about the behavior and feel says not arkansas. Everything about the look and how it arrived says arkansas (I can't compare edge, as I've never used a finishing arkansas before (nothing beyond ~US 700 grit) I've also never used an arkansas without oil before).

I can quite easily scratch the surface with my fingernail.


A thought occurs... awhile back, as an early form of synthetic, they did grind up hard arkansas and suspend it in some kind of medium... it may be possible that for whatever reason, impurities from the original stone would bind together in the suspension while setting/firing and create the appearance of natural inclusions. That would explain it's appearance and softness... but it's really nothing more than a shot in the dark.

I'm going to attempt a slurry with a finer DMT plate today and start on another razor from butterknifed, see if I can garner any more knowledge.

Sorry i have to say. check the stone in picture's and let me know are they different? 2 dark spots on this stone using oils and i haven't lap it flat .
This is oil stone and if you try make slurry it will be milky color.
it is pretty fast cutter and when you use with oil it will get dark pretty quick
.Stone mean to use with oil without slurry.
Approximately 4k level.
hope this helps. GL
Last pictures is showing i have broke it and took out of the box.
I am sure we have discuss this stone early. Someone else has too.

Yeah, that stone looks very similar. It appears mine has more dark mottling and less of the lighter yellow, but pattern and colors themselves are almost the same. I'd buy that they're the same type of rock. Is there any ID on that stone?

This stone is way, way finer than 4k though. Using with water it's finer than my 4k king (8k) and comparable to my swaty (10+k) With slurry it's extremely fine. Have you tried cleaning the oil off that stone and using it with slurry? I don't know much about this stone, but I can say that using it with plain water = very high grit scratch pattern, using it with slurry = no scratch pattern.

if it's a coticule you'll see the garnets, that's very simple to rule out.
looks similar to one i saw at joed and carriem's, i think the consensus on theirs was arkansas.

Now those are better.
This one looked quite like yours before I lapped it, Ian.
It also came in such a wooden box.





The previous owner sold it to me as an Arkansas, but we're still not sure whether its actually a natural or a vintage synthetic hone.

Definitely no garnets at 100x. I didn't see any at 400x, but I wasn't able to get good focus. I don't think it's coti.

It's looking like an arky. I'm doing a test to rule out one other possibility that was brought to my attention. I'll let you know the results.

Whatever it is, it's a nice finisher.

The reason the slurry looks like chalk, is that it is chalk.


It appears this is a turkish oilstone. They are apparently novaculite from Smyrna with a heavy amount of lime and chalk impurities. The small amount of info I'm finding suggests that they maintain this "drab" coloring due to these impurities where american novaculite goes translucent at the high end of grits. (It also explains the softness.)

I tested this using an old high school chem trick to check a stone for CaO^3 and it is loaded with it.

Not a definite ID, but so far I think it's the best guess I can make.

Congrats to great stone. I do not know real values of Old turkeys but I hope that one day I will have one in my collection. You just have wetted my appetite for it even more. Thank you for sharing with us.