Thread: Charnley Forest? ID

Hi fellow hone hoarders.
I got this one in recently from the UK. It looked like a Charnley Forest hone to me, and I am pretty sure it is, but wanted some opinions from the experts. It's got a definitely olive coloring with darker streaks, is very hard (actually was not TOO bad to get flat with the aid of a belt sander, but definitely was some work and arkie type hardness) and has the rustic type of shape I have seen on other Charnleys. In the photos it is currently lapped up to 1500 grit wet and dry sandpaper. It came to me mounted in a very old mahogany box, in which it was set in pitch (was a bugger to get out). Anyway, here are the photos, what do you think? Charnley or not?

There are no obvious signs of it being a CF like red spots or veins and I see flaking. My guess would be a Llyn Idwal.

to me it looks more like a Llyn Idwal heres a pic of a few of my private stock of stones from a cross the pond the stone in the middle is a Llyn Idwal the stones on the ends are CF ( the flaking gives your stone away)

Firstly your stone is actualy cut sideways. Those darker spots look like oil seeping through splits.
Secondly I also think that due to flakey chipping it is more like LI. can you do better pictures of surface. Perhaps they will swing me the other way.

I was thinking the same thing about it being cut sideways, and those streaks do also seem to be fissures that have retained some oil (they stay darker like wet even when the stone is dry). I also agree on the flakiness of the chips, so that would indicate a LI? I guess I can't complain about a LI, are they comparable to CF as a very fine finisher?
I was thinking possibly CF as I read about some not showing any red coloring, but it seems like LI is more likely now that we have some agreeing opinions!
I will try for better photos of the surface, would it help if I lapped a portion of the side (which is normally the face)?

Li are very comparable to CF the Li are a bit harder you will have to play around with your new stone .

Matt,

I think you took a lot of pictures....

Originally Posted by zib

Matt,

I think you took a lot of pictures....

Hey, we all love pictures of rocks, right?

On the fourth photo the stone looks like a Turkish oilstone. I don't think there are many other stones that look like this when oiled. Looks like an interesting stone. Definitely Novaculite.