Thread: Please ID these hones

Hello everyone,

I am new in this place, but was reading a lot about razors, hones, restoration and shaving.
I started to buy some stuff and use them.
Recently I grabbed a hone set.
I searched for similar looking stones and I think the green stone might be Llyn Idwal ro Cutlers green.
I have no clue about the Yellow one.
The top of the box is stamped with leathers TGE.
Thanks for opinions and sorry for bad english.

Looks to me like a progression that some one once used to sharpen working tools. The green I think is a LI, the yellow being a coarser India oilstone, not for razors although would likely set a bevel.

Hello Andreles,

The letters stamped on top of the case are usually the initials of a previous (most likely the original) owner.

The biscuit-coloured one one the left looks like a man-made hone (eg norton india) at first glance, but really needs a good clean-up and lapping to be sure. It may turn out to be a novaculite of sorts, but as the other hone is a finishing stone I would think that the left one is probably much coarser and more abrasive.

The greenish one is certainly like a Llyn Idwal, of the speckled/banded type that is sometimes called 'grecian hone' - the chemical analysis of both is virtually the same, the only difference being made by trace elements in both types being slightly different, with the plainer type being called LI or welsh oilstone and the speckled one 'grecian' in the old woodworkers catalogues. Both perform about the same, some say the grecian type performs slightly better, but there is not much in it (apart from the fact that the plainer LI/welsh oilstone is prone to delamination and bulb-like impact flaking). You would finish the razor on this one.

As far as cutlers greenstones are concerned, no-one living has ever seen one - we have just one or two descriptions in old literature, so nobody can say what is or what is not a cutlers greenstone. They are reputed to come from the same area as the LI/wesh oilstone/grecian hone, so the chemical make-up and performance should be on a par. The fact that a couple of (long dead) people have said that they were the most excellent hones is also debatable - different people have different expectations. If they were so famous and beloved of cutlers, you would have thought that a good number of authenticated ones would have survived - but they have not. In all the old catalogues I have seen (with scythestones, carpenters hones, sandstones, oilstones, waterstones etc) I have never even seen the cutlers greenstone mentioned, although mention of welsh oilstone, charnley (sometimes called 'charley') forest, german waterstone, fine belgian hones, german ratisbon hones, tam o'shanters, water of Ayr, etc, etc, are all freely mentioned.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Scipio

Looks to me like a progression that some one once used to sharpen working tools. The green I think is a LI, the yellow being a coarser India oilstone, not for razors although would likely set a bevel.

Ha Scipio! We just posted the same at the same time!

Regards,
Neil

Tell us a bit about where you found these.
That may help tell us what you have.

I think the right hand grey is an Arkansas hone.

Do hone a kitchen knife or something else to see how
it plays. It is so difficult to tell some hones from pictures.

The mustard/ biscuit colored hone has speckles that
I have not seen on a natural like that with the possible exception
of a Belgian Coticule.

So audition them and see what they are to you. You may
have some top drawer hones.

looks like a hone set up for pen knives a indian and a maybe a LI.

My few pennies to the pot
Brown one Washita and the green one LI.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

...I think the right hand grey is an Arkansas hone...

controversial...

The brown one looks very similar to this one of mine. I always assumed it to be an Arkie. Definitely a natural.

Originally Posted by adrspach

My few pennies to the pot
Brown one Washita and the green one LI.

I've to agree with Stepan ! But the green one couldn't be a green Charnley ?