Thread: Charnley Forest hone?

I have been offered for sale a Charnley Forest hone. Should be English or Scottish.
Can anyone tell me more about these hones?

English and from Charnwood forest or thereabouts afaik in Leicestershire. There are/where a number of quarries in the area, iirc (I think the geology of the area has been well studied).
As far as I know they are of a similar makeup to arkansas.

I found this:

All my father's men used the "Charnley Forest", a natural British stone
resembling slate, and I have vivid memories of the incessant rubbing that
was necessary before a keen edge on the tool could be obtained on them.
They varied slightly in quality, but even the very best were dreadfully
slow; and all demanded an abnormal amount of labour, to lighten which we
sometimes applied fine emery powder to the surface. This quickened the
process, but left a raw and unsatisfactory edge to the tool. Recourse to
the grindstone was had [sic] immediately the sharpening bevel became wide.
In the year 1889 the "Washita," an imported stone, appeared on the English
market, and was hailed with delight by all woodworkers , who straightway
discarded their "Charnley Forests" for ever.

Yikes. If a soft Arkansas seems wondrously fast next to this thing, I dunno...

There are few post about this stone on B&B forum.

I've got two of them. Mine are large, long and slow cutting. One slower than the other. I paid a UK vendor $70.00 USD for one shipped and got the other in a trade. They are attractive hones glued to hardwood with a matching cover. All I have seen were cased the same as my two. I have finished a razor or two on them. If you like rocks and want some variety it is cool to have. If you want an efficient razor hone that will not require a lot of laps I would look elsewhere.

Yeah, and let me have it instead .

I have seen one of Sham's in person, and it was pretty impressive: gave a great edge, very pretty stone.

True, not the fastest, but sometimes it's about the journey, not how fast you get to the destination.

Two of them just arrived today. I will have to clean and them and pick one which I will like more. Unfortunately they did not arrive with boxes just bases. Will think if I bother to make lids to them. I have to say $70 sounds like a steal comparing with what I have at present two of mine and one bought for friend of mine.

Yes it was a steal in retrospect. They are lovely looking hones for those of us who can find an old slab of rock beautiful. The other I got in the trade was valued at more than twice that amount. Please post photos when you can. Here are my two.

As I promissed I will. Firstly I want to get rid of gunk which covers them. Possibly even take them out of woden basis. One of them will need a lot of laping as it is not staight. Any sugestion how to speed it up? I do have a piece of granite and sandpapers, but what I have found out so far it is hard stone and traditional lapping will take ages.

The silicon carbide powder method that Smythe pointed me towards, might be the better option for lapping.

I'm turning a bit green here. Do the hones stain or is that just plain jealousy?