Thread: mystery hones

New as I am to all this, I have a few questions about these hones I found together with this: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...-but-what.html

The shorter one is approx 4.8 x 1.9 x 0.9 inches, white and very hard.
It seems to have been glued into the box, and then dropped at some point.
When lapped on 1000 grit wet or dry, wet, it produced a grey/white soup, I guess that is what's called slurry. I first thought it was some kind of dual grit, but after lapping, it was a single nice white color.

The longer is approx 6 x 1.4 x 0.6 inches, blackish, and very worn, with lots of cut marks. It is very soft.
It had a strange smell when lapping, one I can almost remember to have smelled before, but not quite.

Questions: what kind of stones are they? Are they used for honing straights? Grits? How are they used, i.e, With water, oil, or dry?


I think I might be developing a little HAD here...

Regards

Hello,
First one looks like an arkansas, which will be a slow stone.
Second looks to be slate as it appears to have flecks. It could also be a Thuringian as the size is about right, but it looks a little thin for that. May be wear though, but it will have to have been lapped previously if that's the case.

+1 on arkansas. Does the softer one makes slurry of same colour as the stone?

The slurry from the soft, black stone was light gray. That seemed odd to me, it being the first stone I ever honed. I thought: black stone- black slurry, but not at all! Funny thing to see...

In that case +1 on slate. Would not be surprised that this one will be faster cutter than that arkie but with simmilar finish.

The first one looks like a translucent arkansas, arkansas stones produce white slurry and are very hard. Translucents are fine stones.

The second one is probably slate, they are soft and produce grey slurry. I have slates ranging from 6-8k to about 12k.

Thanks a lot, people, for these useful answers. A few additional questions: Should I try to glue the white stone back in the box? The black stone show a lot of cut marks, wouldn't a razor be ruined if one did that to a stone, with it?
Or is it some kind of special honing technique?

I would not worry about gluing the arkie back to the box. Usualy they can sit in quite safely even without gluing. As about the slate I do not understand what you mean. Do you mean that you want to use it in present state for sharpening/honing razors? If yes then my answer is you need to flatten it and then lap it otherwise you risk ruining your blade.

I meant about the black one, as a general question, It looked mighty worn with cut marks, almost as if someone had been cutting directly into it, with a knife, or a razor, (I've seen others hones here look like this, too), wouldn't that ruin any edge that this was done with? Why would someone do this kind of thing to a hone?

Btw, I lapped one side of it, and rounded off the edges, it was very easy to lap, I thought it would be mighty thin if I lapped both sides, so I left the other side unlapped.

I picked up a hone with similar cut marks in it, I was guessing fish hooks.