Thread: ID this pretty rock for me?

I still say its a hindostan

Certainly looks like one now that it doesn't look blue and purple on the monitor! You would have had to be colour blind to be 100% sure from those first photos.

It's either had a hard life or it's softer than the norm to have a dish in it like that.

Regards.
Neil

Its a bit softer than I had hoped judging by the hindostan description. I think this may be one of the coarser sandstone variety Neil mentioned. Using a Norton 8K, I put a mirror finish on this old Gilberts Bros Eclipse. I used it deliberately because of its wide bevel. after mirror, I went back to this stone, and gave it 40 rubs on a diagonal, just to see. As suspected, it put a haze to the steel, leaving an obvious scratch pattern. I would have to put this stone (at least this side of it) at the 3-4K level.

My hindostan is between 3-4k.

Now I feel a tiny bit more "smrt"

maybe one of these days I will actually know my stuff, instead of guessing at it!

There's also a Scottish Red Bay hone which fits the description and aspect.

As far as I know, the only sighting of the Scottish Red Bay Hone was bought to our notice by LittleSilverBladeFromWales when he linked to an Ebay auction selling a number of hones from Scotland, and it wasn't that colour. The other reference comes form A_S who saw that auction - if he noted layering in the hone then I presume he won the auction - can't remember when it was - 2008? 2009? something like that. A_S mentioned the auction and the hone (he called it Scottish Red Bay Oilstone) when he commented on an unknown almost post-box red hone that someone had posted a pic of and queried. I can't remember the thread that clearly, but I think A_S said in it (or in one of his posts about hones and there place of origin, that it was a deep or dark red.

Do you have any more first hand knowledge of the Red Bay hone, Oldengaerde? I would love to know a little more about it, particularly as the strata it seems to come from surfaces in Red Bay on the Irish coast - I have looked at a few gazeteers and can't find an appropriate Red Bay in Scotland. If you have some pics of the hone I would love to see them!

Regards,
Neil