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sunnybob

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This is obviously a sharpening stone, but as I know nothing about them, is it a good, bad, or indifferent one?

IMG_1680_zps32gxnoe9.jpg
 
I'm not expert, not even a regular user. But that stone doesn't have any signs of wear that I can see.
It's also a colour I've not seen before.

At a guess, I'd say it's natural stone, and that could mean it's specially mined for a particular use, or just the opposite, that it's just some rag that gets fobbed off to the unsuspecting user. My scythe stone comes from a particular Balkan quarry, and is shaped a particular way for that one and no other use.

If it's not a natural stone, i.e. it's manufactured from carborundum or the like, it would likely be for a particular use, e.g. general workbench use or for a specific tool.

Has anyone local to you got one like it?
 
I'm on my own out here. Nobody to ask, which is why I keep asking silly questions here.

I have no idea how to decide if its worth keeping or binning, thats the question.
The owner was a carpenter working for BT, so I dont think he was a cabinet making craftsman, if thats any help?
I have a jet wet stone sharpening system, so dont want to keep it unless its special.
 
Could it be one of these?

Old one:

vtg-norton-india-combination-oilstone-sharpening-oil-stone-made-in-u-s-a-6x2x1-085b1c51fb00438dc73e566320facbce.jpg


New one:

3564.jpg


Combination India Oilstone?

In which case it is nothing super special but on the other hand very useful thing to have around, I would say.
 
NickN has said what I was going to say - it looks like a perfectly ordinary and useful India stone. It's been knocked about and chipped but is little used. Value if sold - less than a quid. Price to replace - about £24.
 
It is two stones together!
It was so mucky I did not realise it.
I already understand used tools have almost no value unless they are collectors items. There are already 4 stones in my chisel drawer, but a couple of them are so rough that they could be used for sanding down old paintwork, so I think I will bin a couple as I'me getting a bit swamped with stuff.
 
Combination stone that needs to be cleaned, but should be perfectly useful once it's cleaned.
 
Yeah Bob the orange colour exposed by the chips does immediately suggest it's an India, which I think are the only oilstones of that colour.

Since you might ask, there are many ways to clean old oilstones. The easiest place to start is with a scrub down in hot, soapy water using a stiff brush. If that doesn't do enough you can soak stones in white spirit, gasoline or other organic solvents to try to dissolve out old oil and metal particles. There are methods that go further than this for truly filthy stones but one or the other will usually get a stone clean enough to use for our purposes.

Incidentally just because it's an "oilstone" doesn't mean you have to use it with oil, if you'd prefer not to use an oily liquid as your sharpening fluid people report excellent results using washing up liquid instead.

sunnybob":p7dgpib0 said:
There are already 4 stones in my chisel drawer, but a couple of them are so rough that they could be used for sanding down old paintwork, so I think I will bin a couple as I'me getting a bit swamped with stuff.
Sorry can I check are they rough as in beat up or very coarse-grained?

In the first case it's easy to resurface a stone so no need to chuck it, and in the latter case a rough stone can be very useful sometimes.
 
Oily hand cleaner & nail brush will remove most of the muck, certainly worth keeping, if it's flat.

Bod
 
Strong oil removers (either washing up liquid, or Swarfega) will do a good job.

If the oil has set really hard, try sharpening something non-precious freehand using white spirit as the "lubricant"

This does quite a good job of removing crud, and also tells you something about the stone, in the
nature of the friction and resulting edge.

BugBear
 
By rough i meant coarse stones. One of them, which came with a chisel I bought, is as open as a dish wash sponge. That was a Kreator chisel made (badged) in Greece.
Another came with a set of record chisels my son bought me when I started this hobby.

But i like the jet wet system. Far more precise rather than having to guess angles.
 
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