need some information

ok, i need some information from the hone guru's here. my neighbor is a cabinet maker by trade, and he is one of those who has spent time making cabinets with the old school tools. he has a few stones that he sharpens his chisels and planes and etc on, but his favorite stone is a very reddish looking oil stone, it had some dates on the box, dating back to the 1800's, so my question is what if anything should i look for to tell if this stone is a CF or not. i am greatly curious, and if it is, how can he lap said stone, it is beginning to dish on him in the center.

You should look for a camera,
and then post photos here!

i plan on doing that as soon as i can, i will make certain that he lets me clean up the stone first.

CF is hard stone. you can use water proof sandpaper 325 and flat surface lap the stone.
please post pictures after cleaning up or it won't help as much as we like.
gl

ok, i took some pic i cleaned it up as much as i could the first ones are of the stone in question, the last few are of another stone he has, to me the last stone looks like a translucent arkie, but i dont know my stones as well as i would like.

Looks like an Indian, are you sure it's a natural?

From those stripes on side I would think Hindostan but from face pisture I would say Washita. However I am still waiting for my own Hidostan therefore take this more like guess rather than educated guess.

Take some Oven Cleaner to both of them first.
On the first I suspect that the brown color is not part of the hone and will be removed by the oven cleaner. The size says it is a natural hone & not man made .

The second appears to be a Washita or a soft Arkansas.

Just my $.02,:)

i will ask him if i can do that, and repost some better pics later this week, on a different note, is a washita a good stone to use on razors, or is it to slow of a cutter

Here's a pic of a vintage Washita I have, complete with label and instructions. I've lapped it, but it still needs work, it's very fine, and very close to my Tam o Shanter, last pic shows the Tam, smaller hone with the Washita on top. The Washita cleaned up nice, Lapping took care of that...Very hard, I started with a DMT XX and it took forever...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adrspach

From those stripes on side I would think Hindostan but from face pisture I would say Washita. However I am still waiting for my own Hidostan therefore take this more like guess rather than educated guess.

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your guess is correct it is hindostan stone.

is a hindostan a stone that is liked for razors, or is it an ok, but not particularly sought after piece of rock?