Natural Stone Haul, Knowns and Unknowns

[cotedupy]

Over the last 10 or so months I've been periodically buying various interesting-looking things on UK ebay, and getting them sent to my family there for when I was able to come back for a visit. Here's what I came back to, there are probably about 25 stones in there I guess, some of which I know, some of which are mysteries. So please chime in with any thoughts, as I clean them up and post over the next few days.

Here are a couple of Charnleys. First a little 115 x 42, which is kinda like a slip stone, though it doesn't really have much taper to it. So more just a small stone with rounded sides:

And a bigger one, which I don't intend to remove from it's quite nice box (has a top too). This is 210 x 40:

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And the first mystery stone. I got this from someone in Devon whose father apparently used it for razors, which it's probably fine enough for, but god knows how he did it with the stone so dished on one side, and with a huge gauge out of the other. This is a strange stone; it's a hard flinty-cherty-novaculitey affair with lots going on. I suspect may be some kind of funky Idwal / Grecian, but not entirely sure...

 

[Legion]

That hollow in the last one I can only think was from wood gouges.

The big CF is very nice, isn’t it. They are a pretty stone, and reminds me of New Zealand green stone, though that is Nephrite. I’ll be interested to hear how you think it compares to a hard Arkansas

 

[Wid]

I love those big CF stones. That's one stone I had years ago I really regret selling.

Looks like quite a nice lot

 

[cotedupy]

That hollow in the last one I can only think was from wood gouges.

The big CF is very nice, isn’t it. They are a pretty stone, and reminds me of New Zealand green stone, though that is Nephrite. I’ll be interested to hear how you think it compares to a hard Arkansas

Yeah I imagined that had been done for gouges. Slightly annoying as the other side is fairly heavily dished, so that stone's going to require a fair bit of work .

CFs are certainly pretty! Very much looking forward to giving a spin later - I've never used one before.

 

[cotedupy]

Here's another one that is a semi mystery. This is a very fine, and high quality stone, that actually cuts reasonably for something at this level. The true colour is probably a bit lighter than this (more like the bottom of the stone in the second picture), as I believe the stone was used with oil and still has some in it. 130x50.

The stone is grey-green, and slurry too has some green tint to it:

I assume this box is original, I don't know if the style might help with id-ing?

From the feel of it I'm medium-confident this is a Thuri, but I've only ever used one before, so am no expert...

 

[Empire straights]

Very nice haul!

 

[cotedupy]

Nor am I a particular expert on the various types of purple stone. This big and thick stone is quite fine, and a very good knife stone, it may or may not be the level of finishing razors. It is *notably* soft for a natural stone. These pictures are wet.

I rather like this stone already, but the icing on the cake is this cool green eye on one of the sides...

Given this was from an old woodworking teacher in the UK I assume this might be the purple kind of Llyn Melynllyn. Though I've no idea how you'd tell the difference between that and Vosgienne / LaL, so shout if anybody thinks otherwise...

 

[Empire straights]

Nor am I a particular expert on the various types of purple stone. This big and thick stone is quite fine, and a very good knife stone, it may or may not be the level of finishing razors. It is *notably* soft for a natural stone. These pictures are wet.

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I rather like this stone already, but the icing on the cake is this cool green eye on one of the sides...

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Given this was from an old woodworking teacher in the UK I assume this might be the purple kind of Llyn Melynllyn. Though I've no idea how you'd tell the difference between that and Vosgienne / LaL, so shout if anybody thinks otherwise...

I'd guess LM or one of the various welsh slate. Probably a great stone. Let me know how those CF do I can feed chide if i want to take the plunge.

 

[cotedupy]

This rather fetching sea-green-blue number is happily one the prettiest stones I own. Probably the prettiest - it is just gorgeous.

And shows not all Charnleys have big red stripes going through them (I am 99% sure this is a Charnley, but as ever - shout if you think otherwise!). Though in the second and third pictures you can see some areas on the surface and sides do have a tiny amount of red blush coming through in parts.

It's also a relatively uncommon example (as far as I've seen) of one that's been cut to a full size bench stone. This is an 8x2x1, though it's not quite that deep any more.

 

[cotedupy]

Also very cool looking is this Rozsutec from Slovakia. The blue stripe is quite distinctive of these stones apparently.

That wasn’t actually from ebay, it was a very generous gift from a friend on KKF along with these slurry stones. 2 x BBW, and 2 x Coticule (I think the cotis are backed with slate).

 

[ables]

Awesome stones! The green eye in a cloud of red purple is very striking. And that green stone is beautiful, the side in particular looks like water flowing. Never seen one quite like it.

I really like my Rozsutec stone, I have one side I keep roughed up that ll cut below 4k and another that is smoother which will go from 5-8k no problem. It does start to glaze over and become slow for razors but using knives and pressure things keep moving. It is so hard Ive used it for different stone slurrys many times well too.

 

[cotedupy]

Awesome stones! The green eye in a cloud of red purple is very striking. And that green stone is beautiful, the side in particular looks like water flowing. Never seen one quite like it.

I really like my Rozsutec stone, I have one side I keep roughed up that ll cut below 4k and another that is smoother which will go from 5-8k no problem. It does start to glaze over and become slow for razors but using knives and pressure things keep moving. It is so hard Ive used it for different stone slurrys many times well too.

Yeah some of them have come up really nice looking, and I'm slightly shallow so that makes me very happy . That CF that looks kinda like the ocean and water in particular is really beautiful.

Really looking forward to trying out various things that I've not ever used before, so good to know that info about the Rozsutec. It certainly looks slightly glazed / burnished atm, so I'll try roughing one side to compare the two...

 

[cotedupy]

Unfortunately it's not all sunlit uplands here on the cote...

Among the stones were two that I knew were 8 x 2 Washitas, one was for me, one for another member here. And both got broken in the post . This one may be salvageable with some glue, or the end lapped down to make a stone about 6.5 x 2.

And particularly galling was this old Norton No.1. The break on this is cleaner so hopefully will come up ok, it'll be a stone I use a lot, rather than admire for the collection, so as long as it works I'll be alright.

I've reached out to the sellers to see if they're happy to reimburse half the costs, so it may all work out alright anyway.

 

[Legion]

Unfortunately it's not all sunlit uplands here on the cote...

Among the stones were two that I knew were 8 x 2 Washitas, one was for me, one for another member here. And both got broken in the post . This one may be salvageable with some glue, or the end lapped down to make a stone about 6.5 x 2.

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And particularly galling was this old Norton No.1. The break on this is cleaner so hopefully will come up ok, it'll be a stone I use a lot, rather than admire for the collection, so as long as it works I'll be alright.

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I've reached out to the sellers to see if they're happy to reimburse half the costs, so it may all work out alright anyway.

Those British posties must be pretty rough to break two of them.

 

[cotedupy]

Those British posties must be pretty rough to break two of them.

Yeah, and a shame it happened to those two. Though thinking about it afterwards - quite a lot of old Washitas get broken it seems, they must be relatively fragile stones.

 

[Legion]

Yeah, and a shame it happened to those two. Though thinking about it afterwards - quite a lot of old Washitas get broken it seems, they must be relatively fragile stones.

Someone used to transport them by horse and cart!

 

[cotedupy]

Here’s another mystery purple and green stone. This is a bit darker in colour than the one above, much harder, and a little finer I think. 200x45.

 

[cotedupy]

A small BBW in a little box. Stone is quite thin so I may end up breaking it up for fingerstones or giving away. 130 x 27.

And a small Coti / BBW in a little box. Needs a bit of superglue to fill part of that crack, but hopefully will be a nice wee stone afterwards. 153 x 32.

 

[cotedupy]

Something apparently a bit uncommon - a Goldfisch Wetzstein. Majority consensus has these stones as a kind of Lorraine / Rouge du Salm. It’s certainly a bit different from any other BBW I’ve come across. 113 x 32.

Obviously I’m quite excited to give der Bester Stein der Welt a spin later...

 

[cotedupy]

As I was cleaning some of the above yesterday another one arrived in the post, which I had swapped for a few smaller stones with @stringer bean which is a very interesting stone for me...

This is an old Turkish Oilstone, and it's the only one I have that's been found in the US. It's very certainly a Turkish, though it's a little different from the other ones I have. This is *very* hard and fine, and less porous and friable than others I have, though still cuts quite quickly for the level it's at. Even so this stone is not going to do fast, coarse work I don't imagine.

It was fixed quite securely in its box because the stone was broken across the middle. I've now glued it back together, and once I've filled one last bit and flattened I suspect it'd have quite a good crack at being a razor stone.

It is also very pretty indeed. Loads of colours and stuff going on through the stone; reds, yellows, oranges, greens, blacks, browns...

A very good size too - a neatly cut 8x2 bench stone. Given that and some of the above, plus what has been used to fix it into its box I would probably assume this is an example of an old Pike Turkish.