Thread: Help identifying stones

I'm starting out in the world of str8's and eventually i would like to hone my own razors. My grandfather, an old school Boeing machinist, used these hones years ago. They've been sitting in my garage for about 20 more years. I'm looking for some input as to whether or not these stones will be useful and a guesstimate on what grit they are.

I think the large stone is a waterstone. I lapped it on a thick sheet of glass with 60/100/120/500/1000 & 2000 grit sandpaper. Its almost as smooth as glass. It still has a couple of small pits, so i'll probably have to take another 1/32" or so off.

The second stone is a Norton hard Arkansas oilstone. This stone is not as fine as the larger one. It may be to small for razors. Its cross section shape is like an airfoil. Its probably cut for some specific purpose.

Pretty neat to have old tools you know your grandfather used.

I have no idea what the waterstone might be. The Norton is a white Arkansas slipstone made for honing gouges and other convex bladed woodworking tools.

THe hard Arkansas isn't really fine enough for a razors and it is a very slow stone.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably end up putting the arkansas stone back where it was.

As for the waterstone, I finished removing the last pits and smoothing it out. I think it will be adequate to hone a razor with at one level or another.

Blue Dalmore, I think. At first I thought it was a belgian blue but the cloud swirls in it make me think "Scotch".