Bear Creek

[cotedupy]

I picked up a Bear Creek stone recently cos it was cheap and I didn't have one. Anyone know anything about them?

It's a reasonably fine grained, relatively soft sandstone, finer than Queer Creek, perhaps comparable to a Dalmore though softer. Mine is kinda green atm because of use with oil, with some patterns on the surface, was also broken in the box so I've glued back together:

Though you can see in these pics I've nabbed of Rob's ebay that originally the stone is a light grey colour:

 

[ables]

I have one of these on the way to me!



When I was trying to ID an unknown stone a while back, that I think is a Dalmore now, I was really leaning between Deer Lick and Bear Creek. And have been wanting one of each. I read just about everything I could find on these stones. Alot of people seem to lump them into the queer creek Ohio blue sandstone category but a few others seem to think of them as finer. I just dont think many current razor honers use them, so we rarely hear about the stone. I know I read a few people praising them and a few hating on the stray grit.

I will put it side by side with my queer creek and dalmore to see how it compares. My queer creek is quite coarse, almost like a 800 King stone and my dalmore is very smooth nice feeling.

 

[cotedupy]

Ha... snap! Nice work.

Like you - I’d rate the QC I have around or below 1k. Not my favourite stone in the world tbh.

I haven’t properly tried it yet, but the BC is quite a bit finer. It feels a little higher than a couple of Dalmores I’ve had, a little lower than the other two. I could see stray grit potentially being a problem for razors, though you could probably avoid that with an oil or petroleum jelly soak I imagine.

 

[SliceOfLife]

You may be right it's a different finer rock than queer creek. I've always just lumped the "finer queer creek"s I've encountered in as just that "finer queer creeks". Very possible they were in fact "Beer Creek" or "Deerlick" or whatever other labels these blue sandstones were marketed as.

Never much cared for them. I'd rather use oilstones for that level work on knives and DMT's on razors. Always cool to have a unique label in your collection though.

 

[cotedupy]

You may be right it's a different finer rock than queer creek. I've always just lumped the "finer queer creek"s I've encountered in as just that "finer queer creeks". Very possible they were in fact "Beer Creek" or "Deerlick" or whatever other labels these blue sandstones were marketed as.

Never much cared for them. I'd rather use oilstones for that level work on knives and DMT's on razors. Always cool to have a unique label in your collection though.

I’ve only had one QC and one BC, so not a definitive sample size, but the latter is certainly finer and I think would make a better mid grit razor stone.

I doubt it’s going to be particularly great for knives or tools cos pretty much all of these low to mid level sandstones are fairly slow in comparison to Washitas, Turkish and synths. Though they can often be used nicely in a kasumi progression. But really as you say - I mostly got it just to have and try something different.

 

[ables]

Got my Bear Creek stone in and messed around with it. Compared it with my Norton Blue Labeled Queer Creek and what I'm 98% sure is a dalmore.

QC-BC-Dalmore


On edge


QC slurried, BC, Dalmore Slurried



Dalmore left and Bear Creek Right slurry




QC is 2.3g/cc, BC 2.37 and Dalmore 2.53. Honestly those densities almost tell the story of my grit guesses: QC 1-1.5k, BC 2-2.5k, and Dalmore 4-5k. The BC is a pretty soft and feels nicer to use than the QC but the dalmore feels fantastic. The dalmore has most sparkle but they all have some. And under 50-100X magnification you can really tell these stones are familial. The BC I think was unused and you can see the individual grains of sand matrix clean and clear, the other stones have very similar look but both had been oiled/degreased which makes them darker. The QC is the least homogeneous with what seem like boulders here and there, while the BC and dalmore are more uniform.

The QC and BC are quite close but I think they are not the same exactly. For speed the QC starts to glaze over pretty bad but this BC was maintenaning a fresh surface better as it feels softer atleast. The BC feels like a nice razor stone actually. Neither of them are as nice as Soft arks/washita for knives though, and they certainly wear faster. My QC was surprisingly dished tonight after using it maybe 5 times since last lapping.

Pretty fun stones, my Rozsutec is finer and harder than all these guys but similar. I don't have a hindostan yet but feel like they would be in this same family of stones. Will find one someday. None are speedy but probably can get the job done with patience. I'm gonna do a razor progression from QC>BC>Dalmore>Rozsutec for fun when I get the time.