Thread: UK Black slate hone

Purchased as a 'carpenters oilstone'.

Lapped it flat then progressed up to 5k grit sandpaper. Produces medium grey slurry - very smooth with a slightly shiny matt look.

Harder than Thuringian, but not as hard as Llyn Idwal/Charnleys. More slate-like and less dense.

Honing is very slick and produces a good finished edge that is quite smooth Thuringian-like.

Having trouble deciding whether it should come before or after my Thuringian.

Dimensions: 197 x 44 x 12mm

Any ideas for ID? Water of Ayr perhaps? Or Modine's Special Stone? Or the mythical Black Escher?

Similar to a hone Geezer posted about here

Looks like a Dragon Tongue Welsh slate for me, but if you say is a finisher stone, I don't know.

I have two stones that look like this in my collection although they're not as pretty! Don't know exactly what they are but they do finish a blade out nicely. The slurry is gray colored on mine and the sound they make while honing is very different from my Eschers - more of a swishy sound.

It has a slate texture with the same dimensions as a Yellow Lake Oilstone.

I think WoAs have dark blotches and the grey Special stones sparkle.

Originally Posted by Howard

I have two stones that look like this in my collection although they're not as pretty! Don't know exactly what they are but they do finish a blade out nicely. The slurry is gray colored on mine and the sound they make while honing is very different from my Eschers - more of a swishy sound.

Thanks! Yes - it does make a swishy sound when honing with some pressure as I find most hard hones do. It is almost noiseless when using little/no pressure. An almost finished blade just glides across almost frictionless, on a cushion of water. It has less suction than a thuringian, though that could be my imperfect technique. I'm trying to learn Sham's one-handed stroke as I think it's awesome.

I'd be tempted to try it with slurry if it wasn't such a thin slab. As it is, I don't think it's strictly necessary. Perhaps using a small thuringian as slurry stone?

For such a hard hone it wets very easily. The material reminds me like a cross between superfine charcoal that had been compressed into slate form.

Originally Posted by Piet

It has a slate texture with the same dimensions as a Yellow Lake Oilstone.

I think WoAs have dark blotches and the grey Special stones sparkle.

It has both dark blotches (dots) and sparkly bits in it, in addition to a slightly shiny sheen. 40x mag, the surface looks like an escher/thuringian.

The pictures above make it look grey, due to the very bright lighting I used. It is very definitely black, with very faint darker swirls/dots.

Will take some macro pictures of my hones tonight.

It's an everkeen oilstone. If the colors are right (and it looks a little darker), and it it doesn't have a light blue-purple coloration, with those patterns, that's the first thing I thought. The boxed stone that was sold 50 years ago or so has similar dimensions. Mine looks exactly like yours, and the slurry is grey. (I have a yellow lake and a dragon's tongue for comparison)

Here is a pic of a known WoA for comparison:



Regards,
Neil

Got two of these UK slates now which both seems to be very fine stones, both are not comparable to Dragons Tongue or Yellow Lake stones....

The are grayish black looking quite coarse on the sides with good visible sawmarks, slurry is grey with a little teint of brown...


It seems or looks like that there was a kind of a Stamp on both Ends where the Sawmarks are, it looks like letters slightly visible...



Lapped:

I used to have a stone of this type (at least I think), with a Salmen's stamp.
It didn't look like any of the today's "commercially" available stones.
For that type of stone, there were variations. The darker the stone, the finer. Mine was comparable to a Thuringian in sharpness, but the edge felt very harsh to shave with. The grey ones, are around 6k, maybe even lower. And in those stones you can see some sparkling, if you hold them at direct sunlight.
By the way, reading again my old posts, I have learned a whole lot of things on stones the last couple of years. Thanks SRP! I also owe a thanks to Neil and Henk.

These are also no of the newer available stones iam quite shure on this....but i would think these are more between 8-10k, in comparison to my Müller Water Grindstone which is above 6k...i habe to try these both a bit more to be shure...

Thanks Vasilis!!