Two Ebay specials

[TwistedOak]

Got some oil covered stones for really cheap on ebay. I think the darker is natural, but the lighter colored one is probably synthetic and only suitable for kitchen knives. The darker one seems to polish pretty well. Let this be a lesson to those who buy unknown oilstones on ebay... I've included the before cleaning picture so you can see just how different they can look when you get the oil out of them (they were both described as very dark grey). Measurements are (LxWxD) 8" x 1 15/16" x 5/8" for the lighter one and 7 7/8" x 2" x 1" for the darker one.

Before cleaning, the stone on the left is the dark brown one


Before cleaning the lighter colored one


All pictures from here on are after some scrubbing, baking, oven cleaner, and 220grit.

Dry (note: The dark spot on the lighter stone is oil that hasn't been lapped out yet and the brown specks near the crack and at the ends seem to be rust perhaps because of iron oxide in the stone?):




The dark brown has some translucency at the corners.