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Mine was glued down, but the glue was old and brittle (and applied sparingly).

That could be my stones twin (though it looks a couple inches longer*). I'm very interested in your findings.

Yours has a prettier home though.

edit: Check the bottom... after I spent a half...

Tim, the break in the bottom pic looks very much like a synthetic to me.


Ok, here's what I've confirmed chemically.

It has a lot of CaCo3. It has very little Alumina (not enough to be an...

The reason the slurry looks like chalk, is that it is chalk.


It appears this is a turkish oilstone. They are apparently novaculite from Smyrna with a heavy amount of lime and chalk impurities....

Definitely no garnets at 100x. I didn't see any at 400x, but I wasn't able to get good focus. I don't think it's coti.

It's looking like an arky. I'm doing a test to rule out one other possibility...

Yeah, that stone looks very similar. It appears mine has more dark mottling and less of the lighter yellow, but pattern and colors themselves are almost the same. I'd buy that they're the same type...

Yeah, everything about the behavior and feel says not arkansas. Everything about the look and how it arrived says arkansas (I can't compare edge, as I've never used a finishing arkansas before...

It actually seems to darken a little with use.

Also, lavender was refering to the color, not scent.

Yeah, microsandblasted is a good way to describe the edge it puts. The white on the edges in...

Ok, I took a razor I'd finished on my swaty down there. Made a nice batch of slurry with my DMT. It's pure white, milky and basically looks like chalk in water. In the right light just the faintest...

I'll get a picture with friends outside tomorrow. I'm fresh out of daylight today. The color is about right for that heavily oxidized coti you pictured, but it's behavior with slurry isn't how I...

I think I've seen that thread before, but I'm having no luck with search digging it up now... so I'm safe. If I don't know the symptoms of HAD, I can't get it, right?


Anywho... it arrived.
...

I was unfamiliar with the term balaclava, so prior to looking it up, I pictured someone breaking into a post office with dynamite and a turkish phyllo dough desert.

No, Hi_bud, the real sign of...

Cool, translucent would be nice if only to have a decent <2" wide hone at a reasonably high grit.

Can't wait till it gets here.

This is my form of gambling. ;)

So, you're thinking "hard" arkansas type? That'd be fun to play with.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/its5014/blogs/iansammons/stone.jpg

Well, the last "mystery stone" I bought on eBay got refunded (seller had lost it)... so I felt the need to buy another. Here's the...