Thread: 19th Century honing stone resto project

I'll try to get a good picture of it in the next few days, but I wonder in the meantime, if anybody knows something about 19th-century honing stones. When I was a teenager, my grandpa gave me a straight razor a buddy of his brought back from Germany in World War II.
My grandpa also gave me this old stone he had to sharpen it on. It's now a treasured family heirloom, at least to me. It was the stone his great grandpa had used for his straight. So, I'm 31 now and the stone's original owner is my great, great, grandfather Lewis Payne. Lewis was a teenager during the Civil War and he probably got it then (folks started homekeeping early in those days).
The stone is maybe 8,000 grit? I don't know. The stone is an inch and a half wide, a half inch thick and about four inches long. I decided it would be great to finish a razor, at least once on my great, great, grandfather's stone.
The stone was wore down in the middle a little and had an uneven surface, it was wore too unevenly for razor honing. So I took a 100 grit stone and took it down to almost level, then took an Arkansas soft to it to get it perfectly level. Then I took a little 120 sandcloth to even the corners. I'm working on it with 4,000 cloth now and will probably finish it with leather, then clean it well.
The stone had always looked black to me, but once I got it level and wiped it down, I can see all this subtle beauty in the grain. There are these nice green specks in the stone.
I've got one side of the honing surface level. I'm still thinking about the other side... If I do both sides, it will have only lost about an eighth inch of thickness and of course, it will have lost nothing in the middle.

Wouldn't it be nice if when my son started shaving, I sharpened up his razor on it? That would be his great, great, great, great grandfather's stone.

I keep the stone safe in a little wooden box that, ironically?, a 1930s safety razor came in.

Great story, I'm anxious to see pics of the thing once you're done. Before and after shots would be nice too.

Regards,
EL