Thread: Bear Creek Oil or Waterstone

I found this Bear Creek hone at an antique store, and was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about it?

The label says:

Bear Creek Oil and Water Stone
For Sharpening ???? Tools
Each Stone Guaranteed
If used with water only it will
surpass the ordinary oil stone

I have not had much luck finding any info on this hone, so any info would be great.

Thanks,
Zac

The name is not unfamiliar to me but it may be from some other application. I did find this BC hone on ebay here Item number:260613915370. The ebay hone sounds like a synthetic.

I have one of those Bear Creek Oil/water stones.

Unlike the one in that auction, its is a single grit stone.

I honestly cant say if its natural or no. My suspicion is unnatural, and not fine enough to finish a razor with. But I am no JimmyHAD, and my experience is limited.

I have not cleaned it up and tried it yet, so my conclusions are just speculation based on how it feels to my fingertips. Perhaps I will play with it tonight...

Playing with it now as a matter of fact. Will post some scope pics of scratch pattern soon.

Man made or not, its not such a bad stone. In order are shots of the bevel on an Imperial Razor at 400x 1k-4k-8k Bear Creek-k

I would have to put this stone somewhere between the 4 and the 8, and not all that far behind the 8. Now I am intrigued, and will take one of my shavers, and give it 20 laps on the BC, just to see how it shaves off of it.

First, Thanks for the replies.

JimmyHAD - I saw that ebay listing as well. Like Magpie has mentioned it is a single grit hone. I bet you are correct that it probably is a synthetic.

Magpie - I am curious what the shave will turn out like of of the BC. The one that I was looking at was unlapped so it is hard to say what it would feel like in lapped condition, but my guess was also somewhere between 4 and 8 K. Please let us know how the shave goes.

Thanks again,
Zac

Shave completed.

While I was able to complete the shave, it was not the smoothest I have experienced by any stretch of the imagination. There was a very slight "pull" and required a second pass to achieve my normal results with a single pass. A bit of irritation resulted from the second pass to boot.

I still don't think its a bad stone, and can find itself in the line up at around the 6-7k level would be my guess. A good stepping stone if you will. I suppose a good stropping with a strong paste could also get a razor honed on this stone to a decent point of shaving, but more work than necessary when you can just go up to the next grade of stone.

But certainly I will be sticking to the 8k-12k setup that I have grown used to.

I wonder how closely Bear Creek is related to Queer Creek; a natural sandstone sold by Pike.

The QC Oil and Waterstone label says "use water or for a fine edge use lard or sperm oil"

Revisiting this old thread, and am willing to give the old stone another try.

Sperm oil, (get your minds out of the gutter already for crying out loud!)
Is no longer available in the states. (and almost anywhere else for that matter) but was commonly used as the highest quality lubricant for watch making.

I will ask my watch repairing buddy, what the modern replacement oil is, and try to acquire some. Perhaps this is one of those stones that can change characters just with a tiny change in lubrication.

For anybody still reading, I will let you know!