I will try to get into the details of the stone more later, but I'm wrestling with the idea of whether that is really worth it or not.
This is one of the British stones that popped up for availability recently - the Red Bay Oil Stone. I wasn't able to find much on it, one can discern it's origin by its name probably - but on the British side of it (per the label). The seller was less than helpful on getting an idea about how the stone would perform, but I like odd stones so I figured I would give it roll of the dice. I am surprised it came in one piece; it was wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap for an international trip. That isn't the stones fault though.
Let's start with what is on the label - "Fast Cutting". It places far below a Hindostan in cutting speed (maybe 50%+ slower), and still below my Berea Sandstone (I do not have a Queer Creek to test on hand, Berea is supposed to be a bit nicer so take that for what you will). However, it is *a good deal* below my Berea Bluestone in comparison. The only stones it cuts faster than are very slow stones that almost never generate swarf (and are usually finer than this stone) - it will in fact generate a bit of swarf with some pressure and effort. Overall - I would never bill this as fast cutting to anyone.
Okay - it isn't fast cutting as the labelling suggests, so how what are its other attributes? It is extremely porous. Soak for 30 minutes in water and it still wants more porous. It has a fairly hard structure to it (flicking it gives a very ceramic like "tink" sound which only comes from harder stones I find) but the porosity of it means it will slurry fine for you. It will not self-slurry. The grit rating with slurry is comparable to my Berea Sandstone and again below a Hindostan (unless you heavily conditioned it for coarse grinding), maybe in the 800-1k analogous region. Without slurry it isn't much better, maybe 1k-1.5k analogous tops. It doesn't burnish easily, and its porous nature means that it's burnished sharpening surface isn't useful for much. The burnished surface doesn't really provide any significantly finer performance.
The positive things about it (in so far as I can drudge up any) - it does cut for a long time on the same conditioned surface. It's grit doesn't wear out super easily - though that benefit is counterbalanced quite a bit by it being so slow naturally. Cool it cuts *very slowly* for a long time. It does respond to pressure decently well, but once again you are starting so far "behind" that it's increase in performance is pretty much only relative to itself.
I haven't tried it with oil. There is a decent chance with oil it may cut a little better, and it probably wants the oil given how its composition is fairly durable already - maybe that would make it cut *very slowly* for ages. I suppose there may be a very specific tool you could use for the stone, some type of chisel or otherwise that you can put all your body weight on and you want the stone to cut forever - but honestly, I'd have a hard time seeing that reality play out when you have better options. I would pick my Berea over it (for significantly cheaper) and I bet the Queer Creeks are better than it to (I can report back, I have one coming). A Hindostan runs laps around it (as it does the Bluestones) and has a significantly wider range of performance and conditioning capabilities. I haven't jumped into Washitas yet but given their reputation over the Hindostan I would bet the shadow over this sub-par stone looms even larger than I can demonstrate.
TLDR: When I find myself recommending Bluestone over something for all applications - hard pass. Hopefully others found this useful and if you were contemplating buying the stone - let me have suffered the pains of it for you. Go use your money for something else!
This is one of the British stones that popped up for availability recently - the Red Bay Oil Stone. I wasn't able to find much on it, one can discern it's origin by its name probably - but on the British side of it (per the label). The seller was less than helpful on getting an idea about how the stone would perform, but I like odd stones so I figured I would give it roll of the dice. I am surprised it came in one piece; it was wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap for an international trip. That isn't the stones fault though.
Let's start with what is on the label - "Fast Cutting". It places far below a Hindostan in cutting speed (maybe 50%+ slower), and still below my Berea Sandstone (I do not have a Queer Creek to test on hand, Berea is supposed to be a bit nicer so take that for what you will). However, it is *a good deal* below my Berea Bluestone in comparison. The only stones it cuts faster than are very slow stones that almost never generate swarf (and are usually finer than this stone) - it will in fact generate a bit of swarf with some pressure and effort. Overall - I would never bill this as fast cutting to anyone.
Okay - it isn't fast cutting as the labelling suggests, so how what are its other attributes? It is extremely porous. Soak for 30 minutes in water and it still wants more porous. It has a fairly hard structure to it (flicking it gives a very ceramic like "tink" sound which only comes from harder stones I find) but the porosity of it means it will slurry fine for you. It will not self-slurry. The grit rating with slurry is comparable to my Berea Sandstone and again below a Hindostan (unless you heavily conditioned it for coarse grinding), maybe in the 800-1k analogous region. Without slurry it isn't much better, maybe 1k-1.5k analogous tops. It doesn't burnish easily, and its porous nature means that it's burnished sharpening surface isn't useful for much. The burnished surface doesn't really provide any significantly finer performance.
The positive things about it (in so far as I can drudge up any) - it does cut for a long time on the same conditioned surface. It's grit doesn't wear out super easily - though that benefit is counterbalanced quite a bit by it being so slow naturally. Cool it cuts *very slowly* for a long time. It does respond to pressure decently well, but once again you are starting so far "behind" that it's increase in performance is pretty much only relative to itself.
I haven't tried it with oil. There is a decent chance with oil it may cut a little better, and it probably wants the oil given how its composition is fairly durable already - maybe that would make it cut *very slowly* for ages. I suppose there may be a very specific tool you could use for the stone, some type of chisel or otherwise that you can put all your body weight on and you want the stone to cut forever - but honestly, I'd have a hard time seeing that reality play out when you have better options. I would pick my Berea over it (for significantly cheaper) and I bet the Queer Creeks are better than it to (I can report back, I have one coming). A Hindostan runs laps around it (as it does the Bluestones) and has a significantly wider range of performance and conditioning capabilities. I haven't jumped into Washitas yet but given their reputation over the Hindostan I would bet the shadow over this sub-par stone looms even larger than I can demonstrate.
TLDR: When I find myself recommending Bluestone over something for all applications - hard pass. Hopefully others found this useful and if you were contemplating buying the stone - let me have suffered the pains of it for you. Go use your money for something else!
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