Thread: Help with history on Arkansas stones

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

what color is your stone it looked grey in the ebay link?

indian mountain whetstones was owned by ARKANSAS ABRASIVES, INC. from 1970 to 1994

The only thing I can tell you, (not sure it'll be helpful) is that Norton still uses a simliar coding system for their Arkansas stones. An HB13 is a 4 inch translucent, an HB14 is a 6x2 translucent I think. So it is possible Indian Mountain whetstone was operating under Norton in some fashion. The other simliarity that kinda jumps out is just the Indian Mountain part. As opposed to Ouchita, or Washita Mountains (Original and westernized forms), which is where the Arkansas stones are mined. But anyways, I'm just brainstorming here. I don't have any facts for ya. Hope I helped a little.

Excellent, thanks!

Yeah, the color in the picture is a tad off, the stone had some dust on it. It's similar in color to my Guanxi stone, but perhaps a little lighter (more gray) and then there's the translucency around the edges.

Edit: Here's a quick cell-phone shot. The actual stone is slightly darker than shown here.

Yea I found some history on the Hot Springs area, it looks like there were several quarries in the region. Here's an interesting link. Lists of Quarries & Quarry Links, Photographs and Articles

First, God created the 15, uh, I mean 10 Sharpening stones............

and then

Ooops, wrong story.

This looked interesting...... http://www.danswhetstone.com/novaculite_101.htm

B for benchstone?

Indian mountain because it was in their country before Europeans arrived.

Michael

That is interesting, thanks Lynn! I've always had a fondness for Arkansas stones partly because of their many variations, partly because of their interesting history, and partly because they're from 'murica. I like to think that the westerners can compete in the whetstone biz, too. This is the finest one I've held in the sense that no crystalline structure is visible and it is the least porous of all the Arkansas stones I've seen up close. I wish I had the wherewithal to determine its specific gravity.

that stone looks like a finisher when you do hone on it let us know how it feels. slick like glass or does it have a grip when you run your razor down the stone ?