Thread: Vintage Hone ID?

Can anyone help me identify this vintage hone? I received it last week as part of a five hone lot on eBay. I was able to identify three of the five hones, but had no clue on this one. It doesn't smell of any oil. The lot came from Utah and was apparently acquired by a long-time collector over the years. I have not lapped this hone pending a successful I.D. I initially put a DMT 325 on it but stopped as it seemed to be a hard stone. I was able to easily raise a thick, light brown slurry and found it to be a fast cutter as it removed a chip rather quickly.

The dimensions of the hone are 8'' x 2'' x 7/8''. It is grey-brown in color and has gold/brown spots on both sides as seen in the photos.

Anybody have any ideas on what this one might be? Is it a natural or synthetic stone?

Thanks,

Hey there,

Could the dark surface be oil? I know you said it doesn't SMELL of oil, but if you put it in water and boil it a little oil spots would start coming off if it were oil. I had a hone that looked like that and after I boiled, lapped, boiled again, it looked like a soft Arkansas.

What d'ya think?

Thanks
Carl.

Originally Posted by ajkenne

Can anyone help me identify this vintage hone? I received it last week as part of a five hone lot on eBay. I was able to identify three of the five hones, but had no clue on this one. It doesn't smell of any oil. The lot came from Utah and was apparently acquired by a long-time collector over the years. I have not lapped this hone pending a successful I.D. I initially put a DMT 325 on it but stopped as it seemed to be a hard stone. I was able to easily raise a thick, light brown slurry and found it to be a fast cutter as it removed a chip rather quickly.

The dimensions of the hone are 8'' x 2'' x 7/8''. It is grey-brown in color and has gold/brown spots on both sides as seen in the photos.

Anybody have any ideas on what this one might be? Is it a natural or synthetic stone?

Thanks,

I was thinking soft Arkie as well.

I am going to move this to the HONES section where it will get more looks.

Carl, I will try boiling it and see what that does. Water doesn't penetrate it at all. It is fairly dark. Believe one of the other stones in this lot was a hard white Arkansas stone. This one certainly could be an Arkansas stone as well. Thanks for your input and others seem to agree. Thanks, Austin

No Worries, I am sure it will be of some use in your progression. This is the stone I was talking about (the yellow one not the white one)

Originally Posted by ajkenne

Carl, I will try boiling it and see what that does. Water doesn't penetrate it at all. It is fairly dark. Believe one of the other stones in this lot was a hard white Arkansas stone. This one certainly could be an Arkansas stone as well. Thanks for your input and others seem to agree. Thanks, Austin

If you just want to try to get it cleaner to help ID it, I've found oven cleaner works great cleaning off the accumulated oil sludge.

Looks like it may be an India? I would lap through all that black oil residue and take pics.

Yep, looks like an India to me too.

Well, that makes it 2 for Arkie to 2 for India. It does look similar to some of the India pics I've seen posted in this forum. Same with Arkie pics though. I did boil it in water for 20 minutes and some of the oil came off. Rubbed it on a white napkin and even more came off. Will try some easy off oven cleaner tomorrow. It is a hard stone and a low grit fast cutter! Anyone else have an opinion?
Thanks, Austin