Another car boot hone.

[Phil Pascoe]

Sorry, not the best light for colours. I picked this one up a quid. It is sooo fine and hard - I started to flatten it a little to show the original colour. I've not seen anything like it, I assume it's not natural as the colour is so uniform and there's no sign of any grain. Put a drop of oil on it and it will be there days later, it is so hard - it isn't very hollow, but whoever wore it that way must have arms like Popeye.

 

[bugbear]

It's a Washita, I think - very useful.

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wondered that, too. What put me off is the uniformity - but I've never come across a synthetic stone so fine, hard and impermeable.

 

[memzey]

I've got a lily white Washita which looks a bit like that. Excellent stone. Well done on picking it up for a pound!

 

[bugbear]

I wondered that, too. What put me off is the uniformity - but I've never come across a synthetic stone so fine, hard and impermeable.

another-sharpening-stone-id-t82816.html

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Thanks, BB. A couple of pictures in better light.

 

[Rorschach]

Good lord man, put that leg away!

 

[ED65]

Nice find Phil! And for a quid, hard to do better than that =D>

...whoever wore it that way must have arms like Popeye.

It might have taken them a couple of decades. I have a stone like that, bought new in the 1960s when the owner was a young man and sold on a couple of years ago when he was moving back to the UK.

For a stone of this density you might try white spirit as a honing fluid, if you don't mind getting it on your skin. I've found it works well on the super-fine ones.

 

[bugbear]

Nice find Phil! And for a quid, hard to do better than that =D>

...whoever wore it that way must have arms like Popeye.

It might have taken them a couple of decades. I have a stone like that, bought new in the 1960s when the owner was a young man and sold on a couple of years ago when he was moving back to the UK.

For a stone of this density you might try white spirit as a honing fluid, if you don't mind getting it on your skin. I've found it works well on the super-fine ones.

Washita isn't super fine, or even fine. That's why it's so useful. Arkansas, in various colours, is much finer, an an excellent finishing stone.

For Washita I use my a engine oil/white spirit mix, around 50;50

I agree that on very fine/slippery stones (Arkansas, "Yellow Lake"), pure white spirit reduces that horrible "sliding around with no control" feeling.

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The only thing I can compare it with is a 6000 grit waterstone I owned until some kind soul relieved me of it - I would think it's as fine if not finer. With a drop of light oil it feels like honing on plate glass, and takes a couple of minutes for the oil to discolour. The hollowing looks worse than it is and both sides and edges have been equally used - someone obviously cared for it.

 

[D_W]

Washita, definitely. There were some stones that came out of the pike mine that were fine for honing razors, but they still had some porous appearance and wouldn't be confused for a translucent arkansas stone.

If you conditioned the surface of the stone, you'd find it to cut a bit faster and harsher, but with a strop on bare leather, it would still shave hair. That's what makes them such wonderful hones. Combine them with the use of the cap iron and you can do all of your sharpening with one stone and still get a good surface.

 

[bugbear]

With a drop of light oil it feels like honing on plate glass, and takes a couple of minutes for the oil to discolour.

That's curious; I've two stones that look identical to yours (and each other), but are much grippier, and faster cutting, than you describe.

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'll clean and flatten it then have another crack at it - it may well be different with the surface refreshed, as D. pointed out. I've another rather nice one to do as well, looks to be slate but uncertain atm. -

 

[bridger]

For a stone of this density you might try white spirit as a honing fluid, if you don't mind getting it on your skin. I've found it works well on the super-fine ones.

Try isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol in the US) .

It's lighter than oil and keeps things nice and clean

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Funny, that - I haven't long said on another thread how useful isopropyl is.
Slate, without a doubt the other one.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Another pound gone.


Undoubtedly natural from the damage on the underside.

Four together - the first one now cleaned up, the slate in the middle, the new one on the left and a slip stone on the slate (also cleaned up) in the middle.

I have absolutely no idea what the slipstone is made of. It's pale green, it is just about glass hard - nothing makes the slightest mark on it, .The marks in the picture are fingerprints, it's translucency is totally uniform throughout - held to the sun the light shows through the lower half. It looks too synthetic to be natural - but I wonder why any manufacturer would make anything so hard?

 

[D_W]

top one looks like a cretan

 

[Biliphuster]

Love those stones with an unmilled bottom. Make a box with a cavity to fit the sides with plenty of room underneath and then fill with plaster of paris, set the stone in and let dry.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

No, it was milled, it's just been damaged.

 

[bugbear]

Another pound gone.
I have absolutely no idea what the slipstone is made of. It's pale green, it is just about glass hard - nothing makes the slightest mark on it, .The marks in the picture are fingerprints, it's translucency is totally uniform throughout - held to the sun the light shows through the lower half. It looks too synthetic to be natural - but I wonder why any manufacturer would make anything so hard?

The big square hone the 4 small ones are sitting on looks coarse enough to be quite a fast cutter.

BugBear