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Mystery hones... Let's see what you have

Those banded slates if they could find them would be a real good bridge stone to sell for someone who goes synth to a point and wants a jump off to natural.
 
Yeah, they're pretty fast. Kinda remind me of the Mueller stone to some extent in feel and action, but faster, much less gritty feel to the slurry and maybe a little bit finer. I think they're prone to cracking though.
 
#3 I've had a few of those. Some guys thought they were silkstone, some thought SSofGR. I never figured it out.
#4 Those are the "Vosgienne" aka "Brown Escher" aka etc etc etc from ages ago. I think someone decided it is in fact a rare kind of BBW in the end, but who knows.
#7 I bet is a very hard and extinct vein coticule.
#8 I've got an 8x2" right here... it's exactly as you describe.
#9 Had one of those too... I agree, very similar to the french stones.


Damn tom, did you ever remove it from the paddle? Really curious what the backside of that stone looks like.

Sure did. It is in a strange pressure box bottom. The stone just slide into the base and then like a vise clamps down on it and is a pita to get out again. Never seen anything like it.
Here are before pics and some after mixed up.
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This one came from a regular seller in the UK who said it POSSIBLY CHARNLEY FOREST VARIATION? Definitely not a CF. Based on some other reading from Neil Miller old posts in a description of a similar stone further up being a variation of a Fiddich River stone and the seller being one of the only people to have sold Fiddich River stones and Glanrafon stones I figured it was a good shot in the dark. It maybe one, but no way to trully tell. The edges are more in line with a Coticule edge not as fine as I get from the my other Fiddich stones. Seems like it is similar in slurry texture only not as hard of a stone.
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Found this today and a antique store , does it sharpen razors well? Any info on these ??

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A barber hone. If it is in good condition it should work well as a touch up stone. Make sure the side with the stamp is flat, get it polished to a high grit and use shaving lather on it as the buffer. Strop a lot after you touch up an edge like 45/65 linen to leather. I stress it is a touch up stone for a fading edge not a progression stone
 
This is an estate sale shopper enabling thread if I’ve ever seen one.

I’ve got one odd one I’ll post up in a bit, seems like some kind of slate but I’m not a slate guy at all so I really have no clue.
 
I have one of these but a lot smaller. Thought it was a grey La Lune, but turns out no- it’s quite a nice stone nonetheless.
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Very fine and no fuss getting the most from it.
 
Here's another. I have seen these before, but not domestically. Have seen them for sale out of spain/portugal very occasionally. Same box, same odd dimensions. It is really heavy/dense. They have big chamfers like the french stones but are in no way like them.
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This is one from my very early days of buying hones. As it is now it is 8 15/16x1 11/16x1 2/16. It originally would have been a few inches longer but this one had an end broken off. I cut off that spar to make a tomo. I spoke to Neil Miller not long before he passed and he recognized the marks at the intact end and identified it as some uk slate that was a mystery to him as well. If their packaging were intact, they just came in blank, red card boxes. It's the one slate I know is from uk that is just about there with a thuri. It's harder than any thuri I know of but it slurries easily like one and doesn't have that scrapey feel many uk slates have.
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#52 Those exist in smaller forms too, with proper labels. 6x1" Easily mistaken for a Thuri because they say not to use with oil and are similar dimensions, but they aren't... Neil was right, it's a UK stone. I had one with a label, but sold it a couple years ago. "Genuine Water Hone Use Only With Water" "Be particular to keep free from oil and grease" "Med No 285."

#51 The very first mystery hone I ever bought when I started collecting razor hones was one of these. I was trying to get a Thuri, but realized quickly it wasn't one... as I recall it massacred an edge if slurried. Kept it a couple months then put it up on eBay (or maybe sold it in BST... can't recall). I wasn't thrilled with it. To my memory it finished like a La Lune, but was a good bit softer.
 

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Good lord... digging that up in my eBay history made me depressed... dozens of charnleys sold @ $20-50 each. Big Tams and Vintage Norton Arks @ $25-60. Maybe a hundred Thuris at less than half what they'd be worth now. A 12" Coticule for $100. :a13:Not to mention all the good mystery hones I cleared out for next to nothing to make room for more.
 
I have always been pretty disciplined about waiting for the flavors of the month to change so I don't take big losses
 
#52 Those exist in smaller forms too, with proper labels. 6x1" Easily mistaken for a Thuri because they say not to use with oil and are similar dimensions, but they aren't... Neil was right, it's a UK stone. I had one with a label, but sold it a couple years ago. "Genuine Water Hone Use Only With Water" "Be particular to keep free from oil and grease" "Med No 285."

#51 The very first mystery hone I ever bought when I started collecting razor hones was one of these. I was trying to get a Thuri, but realized quickly it wasn't one... as I recall it massacred an edge if slurried. Kept it a couple months then put it up on eBay (or maybe sold it in BST... can't recall). I wasn't thrilled with it. To my memory it finished like a La Lune, but was a good bit softer.

It's interesting they were using thuri-esque wording. I don't feel my example is a direct replacement, but if I lived in england at the time and my options were the rest of the uk stuff, it may as well have been a thuri given its competence vs the rest as an absolute finisher. It's a fully legit finisher at the very least. As for the stone in the wooden box, I wouldn't slurry it. I don't think it is in the Lune's league, I suspect it's not as consistent in composition. The purple lune is actually criminally cheap on the current market for what you're getting.
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
A great idea for a thread for all the unknown stone floating around. My first contribution is a mystery stone I got in a lot back in March. It was top center in the first picture. It measures in at 8x2x1.5 and is chocolate brown in color. It is very heavy for its size and feels very dense. It has cracks running in all directions so I do not feel it is in the slate family. If does give a very comfortable edge so it can be a good finisher

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Might have a theory on Timwcic's stone. That looks very similar to the Eastern Red that Griffith was selling a couple years back but theirs were cut thinner and wider. The color looks very close down to the Mica looking sparkles all though my stone was fairly soft and coarse'ish it could be from Egypt. The surface reminds me of molten glass poured in to a mold.
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
timwcic the wrinkles and folds make me think it's man made

It is a strange effect. I thought it looked, to me, like drying mud. I can say it does have faint saw marks and was a bear to lap the cleanest surface. It did come from the estate of a watchmaker. They do have the strangest tools
 
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