Thread: Removing a hone from it's box

Had another quick chat with the gentleman this morning, here are the recorded highlights:
1: Having seen the stone in person, he no longer thinks that it is a Charnley Forest stone
2: He thinks it is an atypical German waterstone
3: The brown colouration on the top of the stone is just an accumulation of dirt which he removed with an industrial strength granite surface plate cleaner
4: The brown on the side of the stone is the colour of the hone itself, maybe the surrounding rock from which the stone was cut
5: He couldn't lap it by hand either, but an industrial lapping machine with diamond slurry did the trick
6: 300 strokes and it put a finer polish on a blade than his other German waterstones
7: He estimates grit to be >16k but less than 20k
8: It doesn't raise a slurry at all
9: It's being sent on to an associate of his who is going to do a complete mineralogical analysis of the stone.

I'll keep everyone posted as to the outcome.
Kind regards,
Alex

I had forgotten all about this topic until I recieved a PM from a member asking what conclusions had been reached regarding this particular stone. The member in question thought that this might be of further interest to other members here so I have cut and pasted my original reply.
I heard back from the person I sent the stone to quite some time ago, but as I traded that stone for another stone he had in his collection I never bothered to ask him to send me a copy of the analysis.
Based on a phone conservation I had with him, he concluded that the stone was a typical silica hone as found in a number of regions in Germany. What made this one different was the fact that a lot of the rock surrounding the vein where you would normally find the hone material was taken out with it, and then it was glued into the box the wrong way round. This explains why it was so hard and such a slow cutting hone.
As far as the shimmering particles that I thought looked similiar to Noviculite are concerned, these turned out to be crystallised honing oil, although I don't know why these weren't washed away when I cleaned the stone.
The geologist who did the analysis, wanted to keep it as a curio, that's all.
So what started out as an interesting little mystery turned out to be nothing more than a mistake at the mine!
Hope this is of at least some interest to you.
Kind regards,
Alex