Thread: Another hone I don't recognize

I pulled this out of a bin at an antique store today, and when I was handling it there I was pretty sure it was natural. It was well-used, obviously someone liked using it, slightly dished. Not a trace of oil smell.

I smoothed out one side, not too bad a job using my Norton flattening stone and running water, maybe 20 minutes or so. Took it then to 1000 sandpaper on a glass plate, then gave it a try. I used it with water after my coticule on a fairly ugly old Crown razor, and I was very pleased. I've always thought my coticule honed about the 8000 level, and this stone left a smoother and shinier bevel than that. It also worked fast and had nice feedback, sort a a "swish" on the stone. It shaved great with no harshess.

The color is pretty true in these pictures -- basically a dark bluish gray with some darker veins. One end is broken, but what's left is 7" X 1 1/4 inches.

The thing is -- this stone sparkles throughout. Even down in the dark veins, it sparkles. It's so sparkly and so uniformly sparkly, that I thought maybe it's a synthetic of some sort. So..... I'm looking to pick brains. Either way, it's nice to have another finisher, especially for $3.00.



By the way, the line down the edge of the stone at roughly the midline is not uniform, and doesn't appear at either end or the opposite side.