Novaculite ID

[PaulMallorca]

I found this stone in a garage sale in northern France. Green novaculite stones are pretty rare in this country, so identification is difficult.

The paddle is made of ebony wood. It came in a rusty steel box. It was hidden in one of those boxes full of rusty tools. First look I thought it was an dirty white arkansas mounted in plastic, so I got it dirty cheap.

The stone is pale khaki green, with two underlying whitish lines. No red or black spots anywhere, even underneath. It measures 7.5x1.5 inches.

It was in very good condition, so little surfacing required, and it was easier than expected. With use I got it to a glass like surface.

Since the pictures I've sealed the stone in the wood with hot black beeswax. Very secure, it stops water from getting in, and I could get it out if required.

Very very fine grit. With water it can get to an almost perfect polish. With oil I get some sort of cloudy haze finish, and is a bit faster. I'm still experimenting with the shaves on different razors, water and oil.

Pretty amazing stone, so I would like to get more information.

 

[lightfoot]

Wow that's super interesting. Looks semi-translucent to me but I'm not an expert on the matter...

 

[SliceOfLife]

It's an ark.

 

[PaulMallorca]

Never seen a green one. I thought arks ranged from white to black?

The only green ones I've seen are English.

In France we mostly find the Turkish ones, dark brown.

 

[David]

I think I agree with Ian. Looks like a really nice, old translucent Ark to me. I'm not seeing green. On my monitor its coming across as a butterscotch color, which is highly sought after FWIW.

 

[Alum of Potash]

I'm inclined to think a Cretan hone, given the line along the length and dark spots on the edge. They can be pretty light. If it is a Cretan, it looks like the nicest one I've ever seen. Congratulations.

Traditionally, Cretans were charged with milk-fat at the start, using a boiled milk process, and honed with olive oil. Looks it arrived to you charged, smoothed and ready to go.

 

[PaulMallorca]

Not sure what means "FWIW"


Face to face is more on the greenish side, more than yellowish. But then again, I have no arkansas or english hones to compare the grain structure.

I have a couple of cretans, is the easier to find novaculite in France. Very slow compared to other stones in the same range, so not very sought after. I like them to slurry my coticules with out cross grain contamination.

The dark spots on the edge are left over from the last owner. I may surface all the way once I'm more familiar with it.

In any case it works well to flattens and straighten everything at the end of my progression. I rub on it an unknown reddish stone, generating a very gentle polishing slurry. Then I move in to yet another unknown, for the final smother/killer edge. I need to post that last one, is an odd one!

 

[Alum of Potash]

"FWIW" stands for "for what it's worth." So you don't think it's a Cretan? I only use oil, no slurry.

 

[PaulMallorca]

My cretans are very different stones, and I don't see the family thing with this one. I haven't found a real use for them, so I let them pass.

The slurry is from the softer red stone, it helps the blade to glide nicely.

I don't mind oil in my stones, but since my finishing one is impossible to clean, I'm using less of it.

 

[fatwade]

Arkansas Translucent, no Turkey stone in mypoint of view

 

[Alum of Potash]

Well, if it's not a Turkey stone, then I would opt for some kind streaked translucent, as others have suggested. Seems too easy though.

 

[SliceOfLife]

If you get a very old translucent Washita, you'll see this internal grain structure like this one shows. Most translucent arkansas are too tight grained to show it, but not all. If you buy a bunch of cheaper modern hard arks and score a few that are semi-translucent, you'll see this grain too. It's kind of rare because usually a translucent like this would have gotten binned (the grain would be viewed as a flaw), but they're definitely out there, and if you go far enough back, they become more common. It seems they're mostly rare during the arkansas "Golden Age" when flawless translucents flowed like water due to high price, demand and sufficient technology to simplify production. This stone likely predates the technology.

These days the price and demand is low enough mines have to sell rock that would be passed over 50 years ago; they usually just sell it as a lesser grade. I got a few Dan's Translucent "Seconds" about a decade ago that had some of this sort of internal texture.


As for color, arkansas can be basically any color. Some are less common, but they're pretty much all out there.

 

[PapaFish]

Arkansas for sure. If you ever want to sell it, I would love a nice green one
Using slurry on it will tend to keep the Arkansas from reaching it's full smoothness potential, but it can be done for sure. Some guy was selling Arkansas stones with JNat slurry stones a while back. I've tried it, but it didn't seem to speed things up, and I figured it could very likely be embedding slurry in the pores of the stone, so I stopped. Now I normally just use oil.

 

[mikael]

I have one kind of similar. The box and paddle is a little different. But they could easily have been from the same company.

 

[PaulMallorca]

Yes, while different, there is some familiarity on the paddle and the box.

Oil is pretty good, and seems a bit faster. Shave is pretty good.

 

[PaulMallorca]

A detail of the particularly comfortable handle