Thread: Here is my scotch hone

Well, it's arrived. I don't think it's a Water of Ayr hone, if a WoA is basicaly black as people are saying.
It was finished off more crudely than my coticule. It is very smooth feeling and seems slightly harder than my coticule, it lapped quite a bit slower.
It's basicaly grey (gray= US) with darker speckles in it. There are swirls of lighter and darker grey also present.
I cut an 1/8" of one end for a Tamagura made a slurry and set to a wedge I had been patiently honning with my coticule. The stone finished the bevel off quicker than the coticule could, but wasn't as keen an edge as the coticule can produce. The stone feels coarser than the coticule.
I think it's a Tam O'Shanter, here it is -

The egg is a huge one, for comparison!

I would guess it to be a Dalmore Blue!

Tam O' Shanter you have there. You'll like the stone nonetheless. You've also confirmed that Sutton tools sells Tams as WOAs when they're not WOAs as we know them.

Chris L

looks like my tos i got from coully, i have a scottish hone in a wooden box that i cant figure out what it is for sure, the stone i thought was a tos but missing the specles, it is an off white maybe slightly bluish tint, puts off a bluish slurry when lapped here is a pic of it i put in another thread

http://straightrazorpalace.com/basic...tml#post221502
number 21 and 23

That looks like my TAM's but mine do not have as much blue. Perhaps thats just the camera. The "speckles" are the primary indicator.

Originally Posted by Chrisl

Tam O' Shanter you have there. You'll like the stone nonetheless. You've also confirmed that Sutton tools sells Tams as WOAs when they're not WOAs as we know them.

Chris L

They were sold under the same name many years ago also so this is not new I will be posting pics of what I have that proves this.

regards,simon

It's almost as blue as it looks in the picture.
It has a red sticker on the back which says

made in scotland
trade. The celebrated scotch. mark
"Tam O'Shanter" hone.
used by the most eminent of watch and clock manufacturers, lithographers &c &c
The merchants Marks Act makes it an offence to remove trade labels. All infringements will be prosecuted. Gold medals London 1885 and 1890 for excellence and quality of stone.
The Water of Ayr & Tam O'Shanter Hone Works Ltd.

I'm glad they got a gold medal for their rocks because I don't think they would win much for the 'gobledegook' on their labels!
M

Here are some pics of a Water of Ayr/Tam O'Shanter combo stone, so you can see how different they are. There's also one of the WoA next to two vintage Escher-type stones (one dark gray and the other light green) so you can get a sense of its color. Finally there's one of the WoA next to a Dalmore Blue, which has a completely different color and 'figure' . I wouldn't call it particularly blue. The swirls on the Dalmore are not from slurry. It's washed clean; that's just its figure, which I think is as beautiful as any stone I've got.

p.s. The pic with the eschers is overexposed by the flash but it does let you see the very faint figure on the WoA, which is a lot like the Chinese stone when it's wet.

Good God, the last picture top stone is really quite odd and nice looking.
The speckled stone stuck to the dark stone looks like my 6x1x1 TOS.
So, the WoA are ver, very dark then?
Thamks again M

Originally Posted by littlesilverbladefromwale

Good God, the last picture top stone is really quite odd and nice looking.
The speckled stone stuck to the dark stone looks like my 6x1x1 TOS.
So, the WoA are ver, very dark then?
Thamks again M

I think that's slurry in a pattern across the surface of that stone. If I'm wrong, that is an amazingly unique looking stone. I actually hope I'm wrong!!!

Chris L