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- #321
Finally bought an Ark
- Thread starter David
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Mechanic's Friend... I wonder if they used a softer/faster grade for those. It says "For Mechanics and General ?Woodworkers?", so maybe it's not as fine of a stone as other Washitas, but like you say, cut's faster.
You should do a video comparison of The Mechanic's Friend vs. a Lily White, both freshly prepared. When my Lily White was freshly lapped, it cut (what I would consider to be) very quickly for such a fine stone.
6"x2"?
I've never seen that label before, that's very cool
I dig Norton's no frills stamping and branding from this era. As an added bonus, those boxes stick out like sore thumbs at flea markets
The yellow and blue that is
Excellent! Looks great!
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- #327
I wondered the same thing. It says "For mechanics and general woodworkers tools". I'm sure it will slow down as it breaks in but off the DMT DiaFlat the speed was impressive. I'll try and do a comparison between it and a lily white sometime soon. Yes, it's 6x2. Good eye.
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- #328
Thank you Ronnie
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- #329
Me either. I was pretty excited to get it.
Yeah the old Norton boxes are really cool.
Nice stone! There're actually quite a few names that are less common. Mechanic's Friend, Woodworkers Delight, etc. I believe they were the slightly coarser (less dense) stones from what I've read. Washitas were graded from Lily White down through #7 (#1 - #7 from finest to coarsest) with #1 supposed to be equivalent to Lily White except for not being pure white, from what I've read.
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- #331
Looks like you are building a new wall in the house using "Lilly Whites". LOL great stone again!
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- #333
Haha thanks Ronnie. Washitas are really neat stones. They remind me of coticules as far as how much they vary from one stone to the next.
I have one or two super soft and fast washita's. They're go to stones for a number of my knives.
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- #335
Found this nice washita today at the Nashville flea market. I knew it was a washita at first glance, but I didn't know how big the stone was. It was very tight in the wood box but once I got home I managed to tap it out and found out it's double dished, which I think is super cool. Looks like the gentleman who owned it dropped it at some point and decided to flip it over and start on the other side. It's dished roughly 1/2" on both sides. Can't imagine how long that must have taken. It's 8" long, 1 1/2 wide and 1 3/4 thick. Kind of odd measurements for a washita, right?
Attachments
Cool stone. I used to have a hindo with similar dimensions and dishing. My guess was that it was stone that was taken to the tool like an adze, axe or draw knife.
Used for sharpening an axe, it wouldn't take long to dish like that.
Nice score - cool looking piece.
Nice score - cool looking piece.
kelbro
Alfred Spatchcock
That dishing should lap right out 
Yeah, washita's aren't hard to dish. That's why they're so damn fast. They're friable so there's always fresh sharp material ready to cut steel, and they're not as finicky about being kept clean as "arkansas", despite being very similar in composition.
Given its uniformity on both sides, I'm wondering if that stone wasn't intentionally dished like that. Placed on a large, pedal-driven, water-wheel grind-stone or something to achieve the desired effect.
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