Thread: OK fellahs...Naaaamme thaaat hooooone!!!!

Originally Posted by regularjoe

8.25 inches long, 3/8 thick, and then 1 5/8 wide at one end, and 1 15/16ths at the other. Does it matter what kind of acid? I don't happen to have any on hand.



But for clarification: I made no mention of japanese honing stones in this thread(till now). This is just a stone I found, and thought we might have some fun guessing about it. Since I've been thinking on a Jnat, ofc my mind would wander in that direction. Just like when I posted a coticule and asked if it looked like a CF. I wanted a CF, so suddenly everything looked like a CF. lol. Anyhow, thanks for playing fellahs! I do know that there is NOTHING about the appearance of this stone that suggests Jnat, other than the color. Since Jnats seem to come in most colors under the sun, you must give me that concession.

Try lime away, or acid etch for metal if you happen to have that.
May be hot vinegar but I am not sure if it is strong enough.

I couldn't figure it out at first but this post reminded me of something.

Are you sure it's a natural? I find the shape a bit odd, straight at one end and perfectly round at the other.

No Piet. I believe we've worked ourselves around to the notion that it's most likely a barber hone. Just a really big barber hone..of odd shape.

There are larger barber hones out there I have an 8 inch Swaty myself I think your one guess might have been even more accurate then anything else when you said "I had imaginings of a nice paddle hone, with this guy as the centerpiece"

Here are side and end views guys. They don't really tell me anything. Most barber hones I've had were more smooth that this, but it's just as likely this stone has seen sandpaper some time before I got hold of it. I think I'll probably still put it on a paddle, or at least a base of some kind. I would say another reason to think barber hone would be that excessive use(20-90 strokes) causes a wire edge.

Nice close up pics! nothing wrong with that olde camera.

After using acid to test for foam and smell, I'm once again at square one. The stone did not react to the acid in any meaningful way.

Has anyone seen a trapezoidal ceramic hone before? It seems all of our guesses force us to ignore other facts about the stone in order to make them.

It can be a barber hone because they made long barber hones, it has a perfectl rounded end, and it looks very much like one. While it cannot be a barber hone if we've not seen a trapezoidal ceramic hone before. If we dismiss the shape as an effect of sandpaper, then we must also dismiss the lack of chisel marks or saw marks, which would indicate it's a natural stone of some sort. Sandpaper being equally efficient at shaping, as smoothing saw marks.

If we say it's not thick enough to be a real stone, then we must assume all those vintage labeled UK slates are also not natural stones, because they aren't thick enough.

I've not heard any opinions on the look of the side and end views. It seems like it's been shaped by something. While the surface reaction to 150 grit sandpaper is only a mild polishing effect. Which means the sides were finished with something of much lower grit, in order to make that pattern. It's too uniform to be an effect of rattling around in a toolbox imo. And I've never seen a barber hone with the pattern displayed on the sides. No matter how beat up it was.

Anyways, I guess it's just another unknown in the pot. Thanks for all the thoughts fellahs.

Did you try the acid you used on another barber hone to see the reaction?

Aha! I did not. Good point! Perhaps the acid isn't the right type. hmm.