Thread: Diamond in the rough and a mystery stone

I bought an old coticule on Ebay. It had been used with oil, so it was hard to tell what the underlying coticule looked like, but there was no doubt from the pictures that it was a coticule. I set a snipe and forgot about it...
Well, I ended up winning and when it arrived yesterday I started to clean off the oil and lap it. I was very pleasantly surprised to see a light creamy colored coticule underneath all of that oil.
I attached an in progress picture, and a comparison to some of my other coticules. (it's very hard for me to get colors right in the pictures, especially off of my phone)
In the pic to compare to other cotis, the small one on the left is my personal favorite for it's speed. Then is the new one, and then a couple of other grayer ones that I have.
This new one does have some cracks in it, but I don't feel them when passing a razor over, so I'm hoping they'll be ok.

Then, later in the day I stopped at an antique store and picked up a few razors and the mystery stone. It was also covered in oil, but the smoothness and color of the surface (which had a pretty thick coat of oil on it) made me think it might be a thuringian. Well, when I got it home and started cleaning and lapping, it obviously is not a thuringian. It reminds me of a carborundum, but it is much finer than any I have ever seen. Based on scratches under a microscope, I'd say it's just over 1k in grit... But, it cuts FAST. I could not believe how easy it was to set bevels with this stone.
I've attached a picture, I wonder if anyone has any ideas...

Is the stone as green irl as it is in the picture, HNSB?

I'm wondering if it couldn't be Queer Creek, they're kinda greenish and about 1000'ish.

Sandstone, is it?

Nice coticule find. It's fun when you bring home a grimy stone and work to reveal a small treasure. If you're talking about the black lines running perpendicular to the length of the stone, those aren't cracks. They're manganese oxide veins, common in coticule and of no negative consequence for honing. I myself find they give a stone character and I prefer them aesthetically.

One of mine:



And if I may take liberties, one of Utopian's coticules that I find mesmerizing and stunning:


If you were actually referring so some cracks, my apologies in explaining the difference.

Chris L

My charnley forest has small "cracks" running through it like that. You cant feel them, but they look really cool...!

Great find on that coticule!

Originally Posted by Ieronymus

Is the stone as green irl as it is in the picture, HNSB?
I'm wondering if it couldn't be Queer Creek, they're kinda greenish and about 1000'ish.
Sandstone, is it?

It definitely has a greenish color to it. I'm not sure if it's sandstone, or what... I'll look up Queer Creek stones to compare. Thanks!
EDIT: I looked at some of those stones... This does look like a greener version of them. Most of the descriptions for Queer Creek stones describe them as slow cutters. This is definitely not a slow stone.
Also, for anyone trying to help identify it; the stone does absorb water now that I have all of the oil out of it.

Originally Posted by ChrisL

Nice coticule find. It's fun when you bring home a grimy stone and work to reveal a small treasure. If you're talking about the black lines running perpendicular to the length of the stone, those aren't cracks. They're manganese oxide veins, common in coticule and of no negative consequence for honing. ... If you were actually referring so some cracks, my apologies in explaining the difference.
Chris L

Thanks for the explanation Chris. These are definitely cracks. It is a glued combo (BBW for a backer) and the cracks are circumfrential to the coticule. I don't think they'll cause any harm though.

Originally Posted by Stubear

My charnley forest has small "cracks" running through it like that. You cant feel them, but they look really cool...!
Great find on that coticule!

You don't want a cracked up charnley forest... Send it to me, and I'll get rid of it for you.