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Keeping On A Poker Face

timwcic

"Look what I found"
I don’t want everyone to think it’s easy. Finding items in the wild is hard work. Up before sunrise, a lot of miles driven to shop and miles walking or hours picking thru boxes. Every now and than I get a nugget that makes it worth while. Then there is today. You don’t know how hard it is, how difficult it is, how excruciatingly painful it is to keep on a poker face when looking at this pair
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
Look What I Found

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I am always impressed by your finds. Feeling somewhat inspired I searched out almost every local source I could imagine within about an hours drive of me, about 35? Since around february I have gone to most of them, absolutely pathetic. Carborundum , crystolon, india, broken arkansas and completely dished black unknowns. And most of them are $30-70! Deteriorating strops and damaged beyond repair straight razors for $20-50. A couple chipped swattys for way too much and about 20 rolls razors and auto stroppers. I havent completely given up but need to expand my radius I think...
 

David

B&B’s Champion Corn Shucker
A pair of unicorns. Unbelievable. Awesome finds congrats Tim. I’m pretty sure you are the only person in the world who has three Rosy Red Washitas.
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
Thank everyone, it was a holy sh** score. I am happy to see one every decade. Two at the same time, that will never happen again. The glue nugget in the case matches the bottom of the stones perfectly. No end or side labels on either stone
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
Tell us about the stones and why they are noteworthy, please

It’s not that they are any better than other washita stones, so few labeled examples still exist. There soft friable characteristics had them wearing out faster that other Arkansas stones. Also there distribution was not over a extended time period. The mention of “Stonoil” on the label dates to very late 1800’s to early 1900’s

One completed listing with no labeled box and small end label

 
It's not only what you find, Tim, that amazes, it's the frequency at which you find treasures, and how much you have learned about the treasures. I can only imagine how much effort you put into this. Congrats on this one!
 
They are interchangeable w/ "Soft fast-cutting" Lily Whites in my opinion... but I barely use mine (Due to rarity/value, not due to not liking it... they are INCREDIBLE stones), so take that with a grain of salt... and S.F.LWW are hardly cheap either (though they are maybe 20-40% as much... so definitely Cheaper).

Best deal are Woodworkers delight "(Grade L.W. & R.R)" which most people believe means they are a mix of LWW and RRW stones (it appears they (along with Carpenter's Choice and Mechanics Friend) were an exported brand/label of Norton stones... with the other two being potentially the #1 and #2 labels, respectively). I've had maybe 6-10 of them, and they all seemed to fall into the RR and Soft/Fast Cutting LWW camp. The hardest I recall might have been a Medium LWW.

I will say I only ever remember seeing one, maybe two wood boxed RRW before. They're even rarer than the paper boxed version. And given the collector value and the fact that they ARE so soft: All RRW are definitely in the "not for using" camp for me. Just too rare/valuable. I can still bring myself to use Lily Whites, but if their values keep climbing they might become another of the "Only use if the label is missing" stones.
 
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timwcic

"Look what I found"
While the stones are soaking, I cleaned up the boxes. I did a gentle cleaned On the box tops, delicately cleaning the labels the best I can. Can’t do much more because they are starting to flake off the box and I do not want to do no damage to the paper

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timwcic

"Look what I found"
You’re going to have to start a “show off your rosy red Washita” thread.

Thanks David, but there already is one unofficially and you started it

 
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It’s not that they are any better than other washita stones, so few labeled examples still exist. There soft friable characteristics had them wearing out faster that other Arkansas stones. Also there distribution was not over a extended time period. The mention of “Stonoil” on the label dates to very late 1800’s to early 1900’s

One completed listing with no labeled box and small end label

Is there any way to identify different types of washitas if they're unlabeled? You and others helped me i identify a mystery hone as a washita and i have a couple more i suspect are lily whites but the one i got recently has me perplexed. It's hard and feels very fine like a hard ark, it didn't slurry a single piece of grit and with hard pressure for 200 laps. I thought most were very frangible and that's what made them cut quick? This one has the feel of glass with a frosted out matte finish. Little tiny bumps but extremely fine and hard textured. Ive pretty much exclusively used arks my whole life bur ive never used a stone like this one. I love it though regardless of what it's called!
 
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