Oh lord not again!!!! Tell me what I paid too much for yet again.

Dimensions: 8x1.5 inches
Weight:414 grams or 15 ounces roughly.
Color: Dark grey with black striations
Hardness: It'll stop my belt sander dead in it tracks. It'll give up some grey slurry with 600 grit paper, but was very similar to a Guanxi stone in this regard. Very, very, very hard.
Provenance:Tool dealer in Connecticut.
Smell: Kinda like novaculite when I was grinding on it with the belt sander.
Finish: 12k+

In picture 4 the stone is in the center, between an Escher thuringian and a recent mined Guanxi stone with slurry stone.

Kinda thinking maybe somebody bought a woodcraft stone and cut it right down the middle lengthwise, but idk, what do you guys think?

If it is hard, black and in a new looking box, I'd have guessed surgical black Arkansas.

No, I made the boxes Scipio. Every hone gets a case around here . I don't pay good money for stones and not protect them. :) That was an old case that just happened to fit it. I'm not ruling out black Ark though for sure.

Oh forgot to mention the stone had no oil residue on it, although it was a little dirty.

surgical black ark size is a little off but the gray slurry sounds right super hard stone i would like to see a better pic of the striations and do you have a c-12k ? if so compare the two's slurry and note the differences. i never saw a surgical black with striations i have seen spots on surgical black before

Yes sir, the c12k is on the left in picture 4 of the OP :) And here's the best I can do for showing the striations.

The boxes look good, nice idea. Congrats on your find as it seems from your experience to be a finisher. Eleblu has more experience with Arks than me, and I know little of them except that a black novaculite sounds like it can only be one thing.

In your photos it appears way more reflective than any slate hones I've seen, so I'll vote for novaculite or something else not-slate.

I'll add another vote for surgical black Arkie. Once you get it prepped correctly and dialed in, you should have a great finisher, especially for harder American steel.

Ok, my grit estimate was high. lol. But like Theseus said, if it's black arkansas then I'm gonna need to prep it, which I haven't done. I used it to finish a razor tonight, and I can say it feels just like a Hard Arkansas with a blade going across it. Kinda like the rock is grabbing the cutting edge of the razor, and sucking it down to the stone. Anyways, first impression using just water is not much better than N8k. Ofc, my testing is crap...I'm not disciplined enough to really get too scientific. I did thirty on water, then another thirty to see if that would give what I wanted. After that I took the razor to thuri and got what I wanted. lol. But...I'm pretty happy if I got a black ark, and paid about what the market asks for one. Not too bad I guess.

taking a closer look at the last pic are those cracks running down the middle of the stone ? try the scratch test use the side of the stone take a nail or a knife and scratch the stone what color is the mark and did the scratch cut into the stone ? here is a 10x3 inch surgical black i used a 325 dmt (it was worn to begin with ) for three hour's this is where i got

Eleblu: I scratched it fairly easily with a nailset, and the color or the scratch is white. The lines you see in the surface do appear like they might be cracks, but on looking endwise at the stone, they don't travel through the stone. I'm fairly sure if I was to spend three hours with a DMT, I'd have about the same result as you did. It polished with 600 grit dry. And I tried making slurry the old fashioned way with a slurry stone of c12k. The c12k slurry scuffed the surface a little but didn't create any slurry except for maybe it's own. I'm thinking it really has to be Arkansas after honing on it. Anyways, what are you thinking on it?

it very well could be an black ark, i just didnt like the crack going down the middle but the crack looks like it formed with the stone. when you scratch the stone rubbing your finger nail over the scratch can you feel if the scratch cut into the stone ?

Those are some nice boxes Joe!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scipio

If it is hard, black and in a new looking box, I'd have guessed surgical black Arkansas.

---

+1, My first impression was Black Arkansas.....

Normally, a crack or inclusion running long ways down the stone, doesn't interfere with honing, IME. Make sure it's lapped flat. If it bother's you, it can probably be sealed. I've done it on Coticules before.

The crease you see is a very mild low spot, but in other stones, I've not had too many issues that I could trace back to something like that as causing it. If it were a softer stone, I might keep at it until I had a perfectly glass smooth surface. But the stone is just too hard for that. If later on down the road, I'm having trouble with it, then I'll fix that first to see if it helps. More than likely this one will not spend much time with razors because I'm pretty fond of thuringian, when I get it right. I'm going to take the stone to an acquaintance who has a surgical black that he never tires of applauding, and ask him what he thinks. (He's never shown me the magical stone..He just likes to tell me about it. lol) The crack or whatever we're calling it isn't noticeable with a fingernail. Really, this stone id pretty well impervious to fingernails. lol But anyhow, it doesn't catch.


Thanks epd! Glad you like them. :)

the scratch you made on the stone if your finger nail wont catch on it then its safe to say its a surgical black ark