closet discovery

So, at the risk of asking some completely obvious and stupid questions:
When looking at all the pictures of stones on this site, I was thinking "I have seen this before". I went digging in my closet and out came a calligraphy set my father brought me from china. In the set was a stone recipient to prepare the ink in. The recipient was supposed to be filled with an ink base and than worked with another stone to release its beneficial components (something whispers "slurry" in my head):

Attachment 71983

When turned over, it looked exactly like one of the many stones I saw on this website:

Attachment 71984

Now for my questions:
- Is it anywhere near possible that the stone could be used for honing?
- Are there any ways to test the stone's quality's without destroying a razor?
- The stone is not completely flat. How can I flatten it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Master

- Is it anywhere near possible that the stone could be used for honing?

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Yes, nothing precludes it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Master

- Are there any ways to test the stone's quality's without destroying a razor?

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It is unlikely to destroy the razor, even if it is a coarse stone, provided you are proficient at honing, though I wouldn't use my best razors for testing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Master

- The stone is not completely flat. How can I flatten it?

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Either with a lapping plate such as a DMT, or using sandpaper against either granite or glass as the Wiki recommends. I'd be interested to read your results. Looks like a natural, possibly a Chinese waterstone (PHIG).

This may help:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ification.html

Aha, so it has been done before!
To be honest: I am completely new to honing and have no clue as for what I'm looking for in a stone. Will probably flatten the underside up and take it from there...
The stone is definately a chinese natural stone, but I have no idea what type it might be.

So I got to the hardware store today and picked up some sheets of 320 grit water resistant sanding paper. Then I spent 40 minutes on my knees in the garage, flattening the inkstone to perfection. The stone quickly produced a nice milky light grey slurry:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...7/DSCN2528.jpg

The result: a nice and flat stone with rounded edges:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...7/DSCN2530.jpg

What do you guys think? Any expert honers from Belgium around here? I'm willing to bring or ship the stone over for a test run...

Looks like slate to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Master

What do you guys think? Any expert honers from Belgium around here?

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It is certainly not a Belgian stone. If you thought it could have been a Belgian Blue as I am inferring, the absence of a purple slurry precludes this possibility; aside from this it does not look like one.

If it is Chinese, it could be a PHIG - I have never used one, but many here have who I hope will chime in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scipio

It is certainly not a Belgian stone. If you thought it could have been a Belgian Blue as I am inferring, the absence of a purple slurry precludes this possibility; aside from this it does not look like one.

If it is Chinese, it could be a PHIG - I have never used one, but many here have who I hope will chime in.

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I think he was referring to the fact that he's located in Belgium.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DerekC

I think he was referring to the fact that he's located in Belgium.

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what he says :)
I would be surprised if it was a Belgian stone, since my father himself brought it from China many, many years ago.

since obviously this is the more contemporary thread, I will repost what I said in the "odd stone" thread :)


Interestingly enough a japanese friend of mine who is also a retailer for japanese kitchenware and natural stones talked to me about the PHIG or Chinese 12k I showed him.
He didn´t know such thing exists and was interested, so I lend it to him. I also gave him all the information I had. The ebay seller I got it from two years ago
claimed the stone was mined in Guanxi. The friend of mine (a highly enthusiastic stone-addict) checked his sources and came back to me saying in Guanxi there would be no quarry capable
of producing these kinds of stones but his source immrdiately recognized it as a stone used for the preparation of ink.
I have no idea wether that is true or not, nor do I know what kind of source that was.
Looking at the second picture, hell this could be a beat up C12k with a hole in it ...

So it's either slate or PHIG according to you guys. Difficult to determine and since I'm new to all of this, trying on my only razor doesn't seem like a good idea...

isn´t the PHIG slate?

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Originally Posted by Whiskers

Looks like slate to me.

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I did some research on those (Caligraphy sets) and they were made of slate....Making it not suitable for honing...

Phig, C12ks, etc...are not slate...Slate can not be used for honing.

But how to be sure? From what I have found, many chinese rock types have been used for making Suzuri's. Also, suzuri's are used to grind down a solid inkbar into small particles of a very specific size and that, in my opninion, implies that they could have certain capabilities one would loke for in a honing stone.

Hi Zib, I think that is not true. The Frankonian is a slate, the Dragons Tongue is a slate, the back of a coticule (if it´s not a bbb) is slate and can be used for honing,
slate used to be a very common sharpening stone in the long gone days

Look at that website, the slate mine that produces the welsh dragon´s tongue

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Master

So, at the risk of asking some completely obvious and stupid questions:
When looking at all the pictures of stones on this site, I was thinking "I have seen this before". I went digging in my closet and out came a calligraphy set my father brought me from china. In the set was a stone recipient to prepare the ink in. The recipient was supposed to be filled with an ink base and than worked with another stone to release its beneficial components (something whispers "slurry" in my head):

Attachment 71983

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These are ink stones.
Often made of slate....

They are slightly abrasive. Mine is about 5k grit (SWAG).

The ink sticks are compressed and glue rich carbon black
and by rubbing the stick on the slate ramp in the pool
you make ink that you can then brush on paper. They
are common in Japanese and Chinese art and craft shops.
Select the best ink stone for the practice of Japanese calligraphy.

Fancy carved ones are expensive...

There is no reason not to lap the back of one flat and
try it.

EDIT:
Many slate hones are used with oil.
Slate like silt stones can be very hard to
almost soft. They can be sandy and
coarse or fine as silk.

Thuringian or Esher or a Mueller are all slates
of various quality and hardness.

Many slates and silt stones can
be further hardened in a kiln.

A key difference is that slate splits
where other hard meta siltstones
need to be cut. But split can be
thick like a flagstone or thin like a
roof tile.

Slate under the felt of a billiard table
tends to be be coarse and sandy gray
while the old good black board slates were
wonderful smooth and fine.

Color can be blue, bluegreen, red, black...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lesslemming

Hi Zib, I think that is not true. The Frankonian is a slate, the Dragons Tongue is a slate, the back of a coticule (if it´s not a bbb) is slate and can be used for honing,
slate used to be a very common sharpening stone in the long gone days

Look at that website, the slate mine that produces the welsh dragon´s tongue

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You are right Lesslemming, even the yellow-gray Belgian coticule from the Ardennes is slate. A very special, in fact a unique kind of slate with microcrystalline garnets... but still a slate.

Slate, flagstone... these are very generic descriptive words for meta sedimentary
stone that can be split. They can be sandy mud stones intercalated
or just very fine siltstones that split well. And there is no need to split
into thin roof tiles. Big old slabs are fine too.