Thread: Help needed to identify hone

To be honest from side striation on the stone I would not be too surprised if that was man made hone.

Originally Posted by adrspach

To be honest from side striation on the stone I would not be too surprised if that was man made hone.

BAH! I totally overlooked that and was too stuck on the cutting face. I think you might be right there! It's TOO uniform on the side, now that I look at it, to be a natural stone, unless it was a slate based stone? The 3 welsh stones I picked up don't 'look' natural either! The only way you can tell is by raising a slurry and smelling the rock or taking a really close look and seeing the subtle veins in the stone.

I'm a little torn here. I've also never seen a 'man made' hone with so many larger sized imperfections in it. All the man mades I've seen are way more uniform in color than that.

Have you ever seen man made Coti or Thuri? There is somewhere thread about it.

Its got the look and slurry of an extra thich barber hone.

This thought had occurred to me as well but like brooksie967 I was puzzled by the imperfections in the stone.

When I saw first barber hone with so many imperfection I was puzzled too but since then I encountered few more.

Originally Posted by pt2583

This thought had occurred to me as well but like brooksie967 I was puzzled by the imperfections in the stone.

Describe what you mean by imperfections in this stone, please.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Describe what you mean by imperfections in this stone, please.

I guess the proper term would be inclusion. There are white and orange inclusions throughout the stone. If I look at any of the synthetic stones by norton, naniwa, king, etc etc, they are all of uniform color throughout. I'm not sure why something, man made, designed to be of uniform characteristic for the purpose of cutting/polishing metal, would have such design.

Originally Posted by brooksie967

I guess the proper term would be inclusion. There are white and orange inclusions throughout the stone. If I look at any of the synthetic stones by norton, naniwa, king, etc etc, they are all of uniform color throughout. I'm not sure why something, man made, designed to be of uniform characteristic for the purpose of cutting/polishing metal, would have such design.

I think your theory is right, brooksie.
The problem is, I can't see the inclusions in the pictures. I guess I need new glasses.
I just looked again and easy dismissed the "few" specks that I did/do see as foreign particles from a box or container.
I do not see any inclusions in the slurry, which on my screen the slurry pictures are a little clearer.

Who knows for sure, not me, my guess is man-made.
BUT,,,,
If you see white & orange inclusions, then natural is a higher probability.

Thanks every one for your wise words. I've read the thread about brown Thuringians and picked up on name of another brown hone whih was mentioned. This the "Frankonian" hone which has similar characteristics i.e. brown, very hard and dense. I accept my stone may well be man made, but does anyone have any thoughts on the Frankonian as an alternative. If some one had some pictures of a Frankonian to post I could compare. Thanks again every one