Thread: Another couple mystery stones

These stones are 2 x 6 (roughly) and 1 1/4 x 7. The narrower one is a water stone and makes a coffee colored slurry. It is medium / fine and fast. The stone color is a dull brown, and gets darker when wet. Its very porous. It is also painted black on three of its long sides. It's possible the light stripe is the real stone color and the black paint discolored the edges.

The larger stone is an oilstone. It's medium gritted and fast. It is the most colorful stone ive had. The box is very elaborate also. The rust color in the middle could actually be rust, the stone was coated with steel when I bought it, and i scraped big chunks of swarf off of it and the box. I was really just buying it because the box was fancy, i had no idea what the stone looked like. It looked like it had a coat of gray paint on it. Any guesses?

The big one looks like an Arkansas stone

The top stone is definetly Washita Arkansas stone.

Bottom looks like one of my German water hones.

the stone in the case looks to be a washita or any other ark (i have a hard ark same color) with oil staining use easy off oven cleaner to remove the surface oil. if you want to remove all the oil from the stone you'll have to boil it out in a pan with a rag at the bottom of the pan and some detergent.

Another vote for the brown one being an Ark Washita. No clue on the other one. Take Eleblu05's advice, then repost with more pics.

The first one already boiled for a half hour and then I lapped it. Is the rust color called oil staining? Will oven cleaner take that off? You should have seen it when I got it. I scraped 1/16 inch of swarf off the top. It was so glossy with swarf I thought it was a hard black arkansas.

The second one is clean as a whistle, never saw oil, and it soaks up water quickly.

Well I think we need more or better pics of the one as yet unknown. The 6x2 is an Arkansas, and it looks about like all the rest I've seen. I'm not sure if it's called oil staining. Normally I just call it "not yet clean enough". Oven cleaner should improve it's looks a little. We need more/better pics of the one that's clean as a whistle I think. But even then I probably won't be able to tell you definitively. Somebody else will though...maybe.

I have an Arkansas like that, I boiled it for 45 min in a mixture of TSP and dawn dish soap. It cleaned it up pretty well, it still has some of the rust color. It's a very nice stone.

Originally Posted by JamesT

The first one already boiled for a half hour and then I lapped it. Is the rust color called oil staining? Will oven cleaner take that off? You should have seen it when I got it. I scraped 1/16 inch of swarf off the top. It was so glossy with swarf I thought it was a hard black arkansas.

The second one is clean as a whistle, never saw oil, and it soaks up water quickly.