Banded/Layered Hone ID

Picked this up whilst floating around Cornwall for a friends wedding. It was black & boxed when I got it & I thought it might be a Charnley Forest. After a lot of oven cleaner, dishwasher residence, 80 grit sanding belts and some finer lapping it's appearing brown/beige and banded. Not at all what I thought.

It's a hard stone, not as hard as my vintage translucent arkansas, which after 18 months still isn't flat, but not too far behind & a fair bit harder than my Chinese 12k/phig/chugs or Welsh Stones.

After lapping I put a shave ready Solingen to it, weird. Felt like honing on popping candy, the hone felt great but there was lots of pinging and dinging, felt like it was releasing tiny bits of grit. I then took a V2 Japanese knife to it which had the same feeling but it calmed down a lot after a minute or two. Back to the razor and I'm still not happy, it's still feeling just a little gritty - like a two or three tiny grains of sand are always floating around. Hoping I can sort out the 'floating grit' issue to get a better idea of the stone, it seems pretty fine but I'm not trying any shave tests until I'm happy with the feel of it.

The stone was heavily dished on the sides near the middle, the centre point was pretty much level with the ends. Looked like someone had been using it, evenly, on each side for a looooong time - the first pic shows a little of the dishing but that pic is after a lot of lapping.

Two of the pics are of it fairly clean mid-lapping, the other are of it after the V2 knife and with a little olive oil - I couldn't find my honing oil at the 'it's flat' moment and had to try it out.

That might be what they call the tombstone hone.
but i could be wrong.
if it is once you get all the grease off the top layer.
it should slurry.
but you may have to clean the grease and oil off before every use with water.
oil takes ages to get it all out.

thats a very nice hindostan stone

what type of flatting stones do you have or sand paper ?

Man i have notice that too with one of those of mine.
How their feels like theirs course sand in it.
but one of mine of those things seems give me nice edges.

Hindostan was what first came to mind as it's banded. I have no experience of them beyond internet photos, I posted here as Sham said he really didn't think it was a Hindostan but didn't know what it is.

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Originally Posted by Proinsias

I couldn't find my honing oil at the 'it's flat' moment and had to try it out.

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Just found out I couldn't find it as SWBMA put it in the bin. Turns out her version of 'empty' is not the same as mine :(

i have two hindostans stones they shouldnt feel like they have grit stuck in them they should fell like a translucent but with a lite "grab" this is the feel of running a razor over a hindo

Try working it over with a piece of flat steel and some honing oil. That will condition the surface and might do something helpful about the occasional grittiness.

Sure looks like a Hindostan to me.

heres my hindostan not the best pic tho

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Originally Posted by eleblu05

what type of flatting stones do you have or sand paper ?

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I used about 3 meters of this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...d=220854065026

Followed by 200 grit wet/dry and then a worn dmt 325.

I have wet/dry up to 2000 grit, most of the time I just rub stones against each other to keep them fairly smooth after initial lapping.

If I can ever be arsed I'll lap the other faces of the which might give a better idea of the stone. In the meantime mine doesn't look much like your Hindostan at all, to my eyes.

thats a good set up i would use your 325 lightly then go to a knife to see if the grit issue go's a way ,if so finish the stone off with your 2000 grit sandpaper.

your stone is darker most hindostans look like they have been coffee stained or orange in color

They do clean up nice, here's mine after lapping cleaning with oven cleaner and boiling in water to get stains and oil out of it the outcome was a nice finisher.
Attachment 108127

I've not done boiling it in water, I feel a plan forming.......

I dont think I would boil a stone, just doesnt sound right to me. Soak in some water with a degreasing soap such as Dawn, or a petro solvent like carb cleaner.

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Originally Posted by nun2sharp

I dont think I would boil a stone, just doesnt sound right to me. Soak in some water with a degreasing soap such as Dawn, or a petro solvent like carb cleaner.

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Of course just what i want to do is hone my razors on a stone impregnated with carb cleaner!

Actually I meant to say brake cleaner, that stuff dissolves gunk fast and then evaporates.

When the charnley forrest craze first hit SRP I was frequenting UK internet antique tool sites looking for them. What I found interesting was the many vintage Arkansas stones they had come up for sale in the UK.

Apparently those fellows back 100 years ago were no different than we are in chasing the 'finer' edge with what were for them exotic stones. IIRC the hindostan came out of a small area in Indiana in the USA. Used for tombstones back when there was plenty of the stuff around. Anyway, cool stone.

I do have one similar to this one. I call it Hindostan but Neil Miller would not agree. There supposedly are few areas in N. America which stones of similar appearance come from. Perhaps the main difference is on which side did you try to hone? Was is on the layer marked side or non marked?

I tried to hone on the layered face. It came in a wooden box with the layered side up so I thought that should be my first port of call.

I had one like that. Don't ask why somebody used it that way as I do not know.