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mine is a little thirsty too.
I had tossed around the idea that mine was synthetic as well, but the veins/stripes, and the texture of the gouged out material seem like natural stone.
I dunno, that's why I posted this thread. I am stuck.
Either way, it's coming to the mid-MO get together, so I can get more opinions after folks can see it in person.
seems like natural and finer. lets see on mo meeting we will figure it out. nice find Joe
Well it would be great to have more information about these hones.
I have three of them by now. All in wooden boxes, quite big and actually quite nice.
Keep us posted!
This ought to be good!
FWIW: It looks like a Turkey stone (see eg this description), but it is my understanding that large specimens are rather rare, that they were often heavily fissured/cracked, and that they were almost invariably used with oil.
As a side note on Turkey stones:
There seems some confusion about whence they came. Some cite central Turkey as site of origin, whereas other sources originate the hone in South-West Crete (for an extended period of time part of the Turkish (Ottoman) empire).
To complicate further: North central Crete is where Candia is, which lent its name to a hone too. Some days ago 0livia posted a link with a picture of this stone. This hone may or may not be the same as an anonymous 'vulcanic Greek razor hone'.
:shrug:
Well, Sham has/will have a Turkey oil stone to compare with mine at the get together, so we shall see!
Outside of Olivia's thread, and your comment, I have never heard anything about Greek stones, add another idea to the pile! :gaah:;)
But they once might have been one of the most famous stones in Europe ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by joke1176
In old books a " pierre du Levan t" / " levantinischer Wetzstein " is frequently mentioned:
Quote:
La pierre du Levant d'un vert très obscur, très sale, et tirant en quelques endroits sur le blanchâtre, est une variété de schiste couticule, qui vient d'Allemagne et du Levant [sic!]; ...
(Dictionaire technologique ou nouveau dictionnaire universel des arts et métiers, p. 185)
Dictionaire technologique ou nouveau ... - Google Buchsuche
In English " Turkey oil rubber ":
http://books.google.it/books?id=rZU5...PRA1-PA2400,M1
Page 2400
An interesting Google Book with reverence to Cretan whetstone (quarries): Travels and Researches in Crete by Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt
Hello guys, My name is Özgün and I just registered from Turkey to answer this tread. This is a turkey oilstone, comes from Crete so also known as Crete stone too. This is because Crete was belonged to Ottomans back those years. Its also a novaculite form of stone pretty similar to arkansas but in a lower ratio. (about %75)
There are two kinds of it. Grey ones, so common, and black ones old and very rare. Grey ones are pretty rough, there is not a certain size but lower than 1000 jis mostly. I dont think they are suitable for razor honing or sharpening. I never liked their sharpening properties, even for knife sharpening.
But the black ones are just awesome. Awesomer than black arkansas. There are some lucky guys here have these black ones from their grandfathers, I'm not that lucky. :( they are very fine and cuts very fast. Perfect for razor sharpening and honing. They are in much higher grit ( I think 6000< )than the grey ones. One of the fastest fine grit oilstones I've ever seen.
For the grey ones its suggested to boil them in tallow long time for best performance, otherwise they will drink oil very fast and become clogged easily. Black ones can be used with water or oil since they are very closely grained not much clogging problems.
I still see grey ones dispensable while there are so many other like coticule.
Here you can see a black one, pretty similar to an arkansas.
http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg706/sca...=640&ysize=640