Those are pretty hard to come by
Water of Ayr, Tam O'Shanter, and the Scotch hone
- Thread starter LJS
- Start date
Yeah I have only seen the one (at anything close to a sane price, $8k was a no-go) since I started looking nearly a year ago. The back was sold as WoA, time will tell! I shaved yesterday at noon, so it'll be just a bit before my face is ready again.
Very nice. One that has eluded me so far
Really lovely innit?
I'm not sure the new Charnley is wide enough to hone on though. Should probably get rid of it.
How wide is the Charnley?
It most certainly is!
An interesting nugget of info for you, which I hadn't clocked until @rideon66 mentioned to me a while back...
It's suggested in G&H3 that the WoA used for the Dual Hones came from the Meikledale quarry, which produced a finer and better quality stone than that from the Enterkine quarry. Both your and my stones would seem to support that. As the Meikledale WoA can apparently be distinguished by the dark (almost black) spots on the surface, which both of our DHs look to have:
I shaved off mine yesterday and it was absolutely excellent. I'm sure yours will be too
.
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It has a depth that's hard to capture on camera, really fascinating to look at. I really wish I hadn't just shaved!
Is G&H3 a reference book? Not familiar with the acronym.
Is G&H3 a reference book? Not familiar with the acronym.
Yeah... especially when wet there's lots of cool 3d effects going on!
Henk Bos Grinding and Honing 3. I'm sure you've read before, but here's the link anyway:
I've never even heard of that, THANK YOU!
I recently read Iwasaki's guide and the Ardennes Coticule "book", started reading a B&B user made guide. This is a whole different beast.
Apparently the coticule book I read was really part 4 of this series. Didn't even realize it was part of a set
I'm sure other people will have noticed this stone on UK ebay a few months back, but for some reason I got it at the kind of price a labelled 'normal' Tam in this size might go for. One reason might be that this is exceptionally uncommon, and it hadn't actually really been used, which meant that the 'factory finish' kinda obscured the freckles. It could have just been someone sticking the label onto something else, and I spent a very long time looking over the pics and seller's history (doesn't normally sell stones which was a good sign), before deciding it probably was the real deal.
White Tam O'Shanters (WTOS) from the WoAToS Hone Works aren't quite the very bright white colour that some other stones sold as White Tams are, they seem to be more of a light grey - there are some pics of others earlier in this thread. And they also tended to be very small 3" to 5" usually. I don't think I've ever seen an 8" version, just an old post of Neil M's saying: 'they do exist' or somesuch.
This is 8 x 1 7/8 x 1 3/4 ". It feels (predictably) like an extememly fine version of a Tam. But a little different from the bright white type.
White Tam O'Shanters (WTOS) from the WoAToS Hone Works aren't quite the very bright white colour that some other stones sold as White Tams are, they seem to be more of a light grey - there are some pics of others earlier in this thread. And they also tended to be very small 3" to 5" usually. I don't think I've ever seen an 8" version, just an old post of Neil M's saying: 'they do exist' or somesuch.
This is 8 x 1 7/8 x 1 3/4 ". It feels (predictably) like an extememly fine version of a Tam. But a little different from the bright white type.
Zero points for guessing why I grabbed these two Dalmores. Both a fair bit finer than the couple I’ve had previously.
Wow. Those two have exceptional patterns to them.
I went to have a look at a handful my of oil-caked synths a couple of days ago, and noticed that two of them which I'd dismissed as SiC, weren't. After a bit of a cleanup these are two near-identical, and not really patterned Dalmores:
Dunno if anyone's seen this before but one of them is stamped 'GPO' on the side:
The only thing I can think of for this is the General Post Office (now Royal Mail and the Post Office), which isn't quite as improbable as it sounds...
The WoATo'S Hone Works had a number of British government contracts for military and medical use - I've seen at least a couple of broadarrow stamped Tams for instance. And the GPO not only had strong ties with the British Military in the form of stuff like the Army Post Office Corps, but also themselves had and used knives on a regular basis. So it isn't I don't think beyond the realms of possibility that this stone was indeed issued to, and used by the British postal service.
Below are a couple of pictures of a folding knife style manufactured specially for the GPO by a couple of names we might recognise (and which I obviously now really want!):
Dunno if anyone's seen this before but one of them is stamped 'GPO' on the side:
The only thing I can think of for this is the General Post Office (now Royal Mail and the Post Office), which isn't quite as improbable as it sounds...
The WoATo'S Hone Works had a number of British government contracts for military and medical use - I've seen at least a couple of broadarrow stamped Tams for instance. And the GPO not only had strong ties with the British Military in the form of stuff like the Army Post Office Corps, but also themselves had and used knives on a regular basis. So it isn't I don't think beyond the realms of possibility that this stone was indeed issued to, and used by the British postal service.
Below are a couple of pictures of a folding knife style manufactured specially for the GPO by a couple of names we might recognise (and which I obviously now really want!):
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Picked up a few of these stones. They arrived today, a few were chipped and will be replaced by the seller. They are 5x1x1. A good razor size hone imo.
Cleaned one side of one of them. I’ll try and use it this weekend. It does seem very smooth to the touch.
Cleaned one side of one of them. I’ll try and use it this weekend. It does seem very smooth to the touch.
I asked about the back story on these and this is what I was told.
“One was a family
member that had a
mobile sharpening
service back in the
1970s.
Barber shops, butchers,
and chefs where his
main customers
Second possibility, and
most probable, was
another Branch on the
family tree owned a
printing company. These
stones I've been told
where the holy grail for
dressing copper print
face.
There where boxes and
boxes of old paperwork
from that print shop in
the same shed the
stones where found in!”
“One was a family
member that had a
mobile sharpening
service back in the
1970s.
Barber shops, butchers,
and chefs where his
main customers
Second possibility, and
most probable, was
another Branch on the
family tree owned a
printing company. These
stones I've been told
where the holy grail for
dressing copper print
face.
There where boxes and
boxes of old paperwork
from that print shop in
the same shed the
stones where found in!”
I have one this size and yeah they're great for finishing razors, not fast, but great. I used mine as a slurry stone on Charnleys and Idwals more than anything thing else but they can smooth an edge quickly. I want to be clear for anyone that doesn't know, smoothing am aggressive edge and finish a razor are light-years away from each other.
I can believe the copper print thing, for sure. They'll leave a mirror finish like a good jnat or a super fine novaculite and some bbws(they get close). Not a huge variety of naturals that do that the way they do.
Forgot to post the customary saw marks.
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