I just recently received in the mail an old 8x2 Arkansas stone from ebay, I believe it's a surgical black, but the edges show a noticeable degree of translucency up-close. I don't know much about "blue-black" stones other than what I've read today, but I'm not ruling that out (mostly because I don't want to). I already love this stone even though I haven't used it. It's notably heavy and quite beautiful.

It looks pretty flat, but I know I'm in for a ride as far as lapping goes (even if it's only a little non-flat).

I'll try to track down the pictures from the now-ended listing, but I had a question that I figured the geology and/or history buffs might be able to help me with.

It was quarried by the "Indian Mountain Whetstones" company and even has an item number (or code, or whatever): BS-H8B. Of course my mind jumps to "Black Surgical-Hone-8 (inches?)"-.......Bojangles? I'm still working on the last word

Where am I going? oh yea, I've see a lot of very helpful postings by many members of pictures from old catalogs. Postings for Razors, Coticules, Eschers, etc. I was wondering if someone may have a bead on where you get these images...is there an archive somewhere?. I'm curious to see if I can track down that particular item number, or even better, an advertisement where this stone was on offer. I've looked into the history of the indian mountain company but haven't had much luck with deeper information. Of course, I'd also welcome any info if someone had a stone from this same company. Just trying to gather as much history about this particular rock as I can!

Thanks in advance!

here's the now-defunct ebay link. I have no idea if it works.
Antique Indian Mountain Whetstone in Orig. Arkansas Dovetailed Wood & Paper Box | eBay