Thread: Any ideas on this one

Last night won a stone described as a Charnley on Ebay UK, I'm sceptical but whacked in a low snipe and got it for £5.50. If it turns out to be one then its a result if not I will use for knives and chisels etc.
Its about 6 1/2" X 1 3/8"

I asked the seller why she thought it was a Charnley and she said:-

My Husband has always understood this stone to be Charnley Forest.

The picture on the listing was crap

so I asked for another and this is what I got through

Hey ho we shall see what turns up, their feed back is 100% and they've sold a few vintage tools so I suspect that they do believe it to be a CF, mind you if it is then its a terrible photo!

Any ideas of what it is more likely to be would be great.

from the angle of the first pic, it looks like Charnley Forrest, but the second pic does not look like one to me.
Can you post pics after the stone is cleaned and lapped?

Will do, I'm expecting it to arrive on Saturday at the earliest. Just wanting to do some pre-investigation pending delivery.

You can't be sure until it is lapped. I have seen several Charnleys that were around 6 inches long.

I was watching that stone but thought that it was more like TOS. If that turns up to be CF then my expectation would be one of the newer versions around 10 000 grit.

Well here are some new pics having just received it, not yet lapped by me. The redish scratch appears to be a kind of vein in the stone and can not be felt. The seller said that the stone had recently been flattened and to be fair its fairly smooth but I'd say it could be lapped with a higher grit as the sides and a bevel at the end are much smoother, and quite polished.

The What do you think, have I struck lucky?

I'll reiterate:

Originally Posted by Scipio

You can't be sure until it is lapped.

OK what am I looking for?

I have given it a quick go over on 1200 grit wet & dry, I'm at work and that's what is to hand, and there is no real change. It may be that the black flecks are oil that had soaked in but that would require a coarser grit to get down deeper to see for sure. I can see further rusty red flecks and lines in addition to the reasonably clear one and the colour is on the grey side of olive green.

Whatever it is its now glassy smooth, so I will check its abilities out as a finisher. I will lap it properly when I get home, what's the best sequence of grits?

Sequence of grits - you will have to work out what has left any scratches and go from there. I usually go 180/240/325/600 and photograph wet.

As to what you are looking for, the more of these stones I see the more variations there are, although there are of course the 'classic' signs that we associate with CFs like red veins (which may be absent), red splotches (which may be absent), mossy green (but may vary from olive drab through green to greyish), no dark spots (but there may be many of them) etc, etc, etc.

Below are some close-ups showing some variations and some classic signs:











...too many pics in one attachment, apparently - will include the others in the next post!

Regards,
Neil

...the others...









Regards,
Neil