Can You ID this British Hone?

I got this hone recently - it was saturated with oil but soaking in a solution of bio washing powder for day and a half has got rid of the oil. It came in a fancy hardwood box, long and narrow, hinged at the narrow end. The hone measures 8.0 x 1.75 x 1.25 inches, and was mounted narrow-side-up in the box. The box looks like the sort of thing you's see in the 1900s - someone took an awful lot of time over making it!

It is a dull pink red with darker patches and a lot of glittery specks (mica? quartz?) in it. I am 99.9% sure it is a natural stone, a bit like sandstone but very hard and firm, not given to releasing sandy particles during honing. I can see some faint evidence of strata in it - just.

It cuts very slowly and leaves a scratch pattern deeper than a King 1000, so I am guessing that it is at least half that grit size.

It's composition is very reminiscent of the Dalmore Yellow I had: tiny particles bonded together with an open or porous appearance. The DY was predominatly yellow with flecks of pink-red, black and white. This one looks just the same but reversed: predominatly pink-red with flecks of yellow, black and white.

I took some close-up pictures of the surface, very much magnified:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...inkstone03.jpg

1. You can see the chamfered edge I added - it took ages to lap!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...inkstone02.jpg

2.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...inkstone01.jpg

3.



Any help/ideas would be appreciated!

Regards,
Neil.

I'm no rock expert, i'm afraid, but those photo's are so close they made my eyes go funny! Might be worth putting one up of the bigger picture?

Good idea Ben - here it is:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...pinkstone4.jpg

Regards,
Neil.

"Norton India Stone" keeps popping into my head. But, that can't be right if its a natrual stone.

Was the box maybe re-used from something else, and the original owner married up the stone and box?

Nothing about this stone strikes me as natural. Norton India stone are my thoughts also.

Very nice box.

Looks like granite to me. Is it soft or hard?

Its extremely hard. And very, very slow. It's the slowest stone I've come across. I thought it was an india stone until I looked at it under the scope - then the similarities between it and the dalmore yellow stood out. Heres a (not very good) close up of the DY:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...s/090/dal1.jpg

can you see the pinkish bits in it - they remind me of the main constituent of this stone. It's not as similar as I thought, but the similarities are there and this image isn't remotely as magnified as the first three I posted. At close mag the DY looks sort of artificial too, IMHO.

The box may have been reused, but all the tooling marks in it seem to be of the same age and the stone fits perfectly.

Regards,
Neil.

What clues convince you of natural origins? I've only got one natural stone with greater height than breadth, a very hard blueish green one cut with honing surfaces perpendicular to the strata, and I've no idea what it is. There is of course the possibility that box and stone aren't an original match. The box looks very much like one I've got with a Tam O'Shanter, apart from the narrow upright shape.

The close-ups do look granity, but granite isn't 'open and porous'. In the overview pic the stone looks like a Pike India, but I have no idea what these look like in close-up. Judging from colour it could be a Red Bay, but these generally show undulating strata lines and have a more sandy appearance. Red Bays are rather porous and suck up lots of water (though a stone saturated with oil might not show this behaviour).

Some of the hone buffs might know. Jim! Sham! Help!


Edit: I see you just addressed the box and natural origin issues. Hmm. Not a clue then.

Another pic of the DY i just found - a bit higher magnification and a little bit sharper - I think this one shows the similarities more:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...s/090/dal2.jpg

Hi Oldengaerde - the thing that made me think it was natural (I'm not 100% convinced!) was the Tam that I have - it came in a similar box, the cross section is much the same, but the length is 10 iches.