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

timwcic

"Look what I found"
Two mystery rescue stones from the markets. First is a 10x2x1 slate. Seems to be typical slate with all the edges chamfered. Nice saw marked all around and have a feeling of fine grit

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timwcic

"Look what I found"
The second is much more interesting. Measures in at 9 x 2 1/8 x 1. A hard stone that has some characteristics of Novaculite. I lapped and was given a smooth, polished surface. Has no translucency and when tapped with metal, I get e thud, not a high pitch ring. Taking for a test drive using oil, a mellow, glasslike, low grit feel under the blade. Don’t know what it is but I like this rock. Last two pictures moistened to get colors to pop

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@GreazyThumbs - I can't tell exactly which pic(s) you have from the side, but kind of reminds me of hindostan. But need to see the sides which typically reveal the layering/lines that make it obvious. Is it kind of fine sandstone feeling?
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
I posted this item a few years ago, thought it was odd to find a Brazilian hone at the flea markets of Florida. Over the weekend I found a user manual for the “Paraguassu” from the Brazilian Abrasive Industries made with Carbonados. At first thought it was a marketing gimmick but researching Carbonados, there is such a thing. Carbonado Diamonds from Brazil with some interesting hypotheses for origin. My first hone that’s out of this world


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The second is much more interesting. Measures in at 9 x 2 1/8 x 1. A hard stone that has some characteristics of Novaculite. I lapped and was given a smooth, polished surface. Has no translucency and when tapped with metal, I get e thud, not a high pitch ring. Taking for a test drive using oil, a mellow, glasslike, low grit feel under the blade. Don’t know what it is but I like this rock. Last two pictures moistened to get colors to pop

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Not a Llyn Idwall?
 
I posted this item a few years ago, thought it was odd to find a Brazilian hone at the flea markets of Florida. Over the weekend I found a user manual for the “Paraguassu” from the Brazilian Abrasive Industries made with Carbonados. At first thought it was a marketing gimmick but researching Carbonados, there is such a thing. Carbonado Diamonds from Brazil with some interesting hypotheses for origin. My first hone that’s out of this world


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Wow. Extremely curious as to how this works. Is this for razors? Let we know.
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
Not a Llyn Idwall?

I was always thinking it was a stone from the UK. It is one of the possibilities that I was leaning towards. A Llyn Idwall hone is a close visible match but it performs and has the feel and feedback of a glassy Charnwood. It’s the color that confusing, brown, mahogany, maroons, with the green orbs and the dense, heavy hand feel keeps me from looking elsewhere. Whatever it may be, it is a impressive finisher that get better every time I play with it


Wow. Extremely curious as to how this works. Is this for razors? Let we know.

It is a interesting little hone. It feels like a medium fine carborundum, with sharp, hard grains in its matrix. I don’t feel it is razor quality but would be a nice knife stone for a quick touchup. I can see it in the saddlebag of a Brazilian or Argentinian Cowboy on the range
 
I got this mystery stone a few years ago off ebay. It came with a bunch of crud on the top I had to clean off and it took a long time to lap it flat. I included dry/wet pics.
 

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Hello All, I am a fellow hone addict and over the last year have read almost every post on this forum. I hope to collect one good example of each famous natural stone razor hone (at an affordable price). Here is my mystery stone.

It is about 10" x 3.5" and came with many gouges plus 1-2mm deep lines where it looked like someone tried to cut the end off for a small rub stone and gave up. A few hours of frustrated lapping was needed to make it clean faced with chamfered edges. It came from a Pennsylvania estate in a handmade box. It is hard and makes a pale green slurry. I measured density to 2.9(g/cm^3). I first only had it sanded to 600grit and it was too aggressive, now it is at 2000grit and quite slow. Only ~5 shaves off of it so far and it isnt as keen of a shave as my well used black arkansas, but it is a very safe shave and fun to use.

Any guesses? I guess llyn Idwal but it seems more "busy-cloudy" than alot of examples I see online...

Water Outside:
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Oil inside:
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Yes that does look like Vermont Green slate

Thank you, im calling it my motley green likely vermont slate now. Which im happy with as I had conceridered buying one off of griffs in the past. I spent some more time with it recently, it is just hilariously slow when used without slurry, but slurry seems to dull the edge a bit? I probally have just lapped/polished it too much. It is my largest stone and easy to use but Id estimate it to be atleast 3 times slower than my well used Dan's Black Arkansas 8" which I thought was slow. It does seem to continually improve the edge under magnification and shaving off of it is very "safe-comfortable" but I think Ive been spoiled by my other hones (arkansas, small coticule, thuringian, tiny hard jnat koppa).
 
Thank you, im calling it my motley green likely vermont slate now. Which im happy with as I had conceridered buying one off of griffs in the past. I spent some more time with it recently, it is just hilariously slow when used without slurry, but slurry seems to dull the edge a bit? I probally have just lapped/polished it too much. It is my largest stone and easy to use but Id estimate it to be atleast 3 times slower than my well used Dan's Black Arkansas 8" which I thought was slow. It does seem to continually improve the edge under magnification and shaving off of it is very "safe-comfortable" but I think Ive been spoiled by my other hones (arkansas, small coticule, thuringian, tiny hard jnat koppa).

I’m not used a Vermont green yet but recently experienced a razor finish on one from Griffin shaving and was blown away by sharpness then smooth but tad on sharp side, removing wow factor as was my first time shaving with CV Heljestrand, I loved the edge, which only got sharper with use, then on 6th shave tamed down to even better smoothness, now on 14th shave with same edge and going strong,

I’m sure Matt, owner is a master honer and his skills also played a roll but im considering buying one from him.

What is your fav edge as I also believe razor steel and the particular finisher and skill / method
I own two amazing jnats, and I believe one of them, is an amazing rock which creates an amazing edge which was wondering can an edge get any better
Then I tried 3 edges from some master honers and wow,,,,

Considering buying Thur or coti but not sure can beat Jnat, also never tried Arkansas as it seems u can obtain sharpness but very slow stone
Your thoughts
 
What could it be?
1. Source is unknown. It was used with an oil.
2. Lapping is quite hard but not extreme, it may indicate the hardness - hard v4.
3. Lapping revealed nice white surface with dark oval inclusions (see the picture in magnification - they are brown/yellow).
4. Honing is extremely fast. I honed on glycerin. See the picture before honing, after less than 10X and after 5 min.
5. 10 min honing leads to HHT at the lowest result (cuts but seldom).
6. The edge scratches are very dense at the same depth but it happens that some of them are different (harder) - that may come from the inclusions.
7. 2 microchips has beed discovered on the edge
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Looks like novaculite to me like an Arkansas stone. The spotting is kind of like Lynn Idwal but don’t recall such white LIs.
 
I’m not used a Vermont green yet but recently experienced a razor finish on one from Griffin shaving and was blown away by sharpness then smooth but tad on sharp side, removing wow factor as was my first time shaving with CV Heljestrand, I loved the edge, which only got sharper with use, then on 6th shave tamed down to even better smoothness, now on 14th shave with same edge and going strong,

I’m sure Matt, owner is a master honer and his skills also played a roll but im considering buying one from him.

What is your fav edge as I also believe razor steel and the particular finisher and skill / method
I own two amazing jnats, and I believe one of them, is an amazing rock which creates an amazing edge which was wondering can an edge get any better
Then I tried 3 edges from some master honers and wow,,,,

Considering buying Thur or coti but not sure can beat Jnat, also never tried Arkansas as it seems u can obtain sharpness but very slow stone
Your thoughts

I would agree and say the skill of the person using a hone likely is the most important aspect of getting razors perfectly sharp. Ive been tinkering around sharpening straight razors for about 8 years on and off, and it has been a very slow learning curve. I watched Lynn Abrams et tal, used Norton/japanese waterstones, and eventually made razors I could shave with but certainly put myself through alot of unnecessary discomfort that made me switch back to DE periodically. I also stubbornly have never had a razor fully sharpened by another person, and have only ever used sub 40$ vintage razors. My razors are a mix of good old Solingen/Sheffield/usa. So who knows if my relative opinion is skewed...

I somewhat recently, past year, feel like I had a bit of a break through using shapton stones then a Natural finishing stone. I do Shapton 2k-5k-Norton8k-Shapton12k- Natural finishing stone. Heres my general current opinion on my final stone to shave off of:
  1. Black Arkansas: 10/10 my favorite, shears hair off instantly while sparing the skin somehow. Ive sharpened atleast 40 knives on it before a razor ever touched it, nice and smooth. Pretty slow but worth it.
  2. SRD Thuringian Barber Hone: 9/10, smooth safe shaves but a step down in sharpness, super easy to use and quick.
  3. Small hard grey kyoto palm sized koppa: Fantastic shaves but challenging to use due to size (5cm x 10cm effective space), fast compared to Arkansas. I wish it was bigger! 8.5/10
  4. 150mm x 40mm new coticule: I have only sharpened a few razors off of this but find the shaves very smooth but lack sharpness. I attempt the dilucot method but have little success, it is not very abrasive and is very smooth. I need practice with it. 8/10
  5. My motley green vermont slate: slowest stone, seems like a slow version of my thuringian? 8/10.
  6. Diamond paste progression post waterstones. Gets super sharp but my face doesnt like it. 7.5/10
  7. Shapton 12k: super fast 7/10.
  8. Norton 8k: Used for years, 6/10.
  9. Spyderco Fine/UF Ceramic: i polished a fine too much and it is quite glassy, I but need to play with more. 6/10.
  10. C12k: God I hate this stone, ive wasted hours/days trying to use it, all it does is dull my razor. 1/10.
I certainly would recommend trying a dense arkansas stone, but it likely will be too abrasive to start with and need some work to shave off of. Ive thought about getting a proper sized jnat but they are confusing/costly!
 
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