Lily White Washita Oil Hone

It's not a rosy red. Those are actually red/pink throughout. Can you get a pic of the label?

Grade is in the lower left corner

That is odd. The rosy red ones have a very distinct look

Possibly the box was sold with either or in there and it was sort of guaranteeing you'd get a LW or RR? As in both are sold under the woodworkers delight label?

I was thinking the same thing.

Here is a picture of my Pike lily white...

Nice. Do you use it on razors?

No.. some of the guys here at B&B ID'd the hone for me... I was told that it was more suitable for knives and chisels.

Pretty sure the Rosy Red stones were just streaked with iron oxide or something similar - many of the old geological reports I've read mention this - Washitas weren't always all white, many had streaks of red and orange. This could possibly have been pulled out/altered by the Simple Green soak as well.

Another thing of note - several of the old reports mentioned the Washitas as being used for razor stones, but made specific mention that when they were used for razors they were honed edge trailing rather than edge leading, and that this produced a finer edge that required a good bit of stropping to bring out the best edge.

BTW on using these for razors, personally I don't find them very useful there, but they are simply fantastic for chisels and knives that are more towards the 50's HRc than 60HRc. They can be used for razors if you keep the surface fresh by re-lapping every use or two, but the harder steels really slow the stone down fast. I have 5 Washitas right now, (a Lily White, a #1 , and three unlabeled - one at the coarser end of the spectrum and two at the finer) and they are my go-to for chisels for sure. Quick few licks on the stone and a few more on the CrOx bench tool strop and bob's yer uncle.

PapaFish said:

Short story: The Lily White Washita Oil Hone is sensitive to surface finish, is able to hone like a 300 grit oil stone, or an ~7K stone. It's edge is passable, and if I spent more time learning, I could shave off it daily. If I used some CrOx, it would be great with the edge as-is. Long story below.

View attachment 251781

Click to expand...

I picked up an oil soaked stone a while back and put it in Simple Green and then forgot about it. It had a dirty label on the top which I tried to keep dry.
Today I refound it in the basement, washed it off and discovered a quite light stone, much lighter than I expected. I gave it another soak in SG and figuring the label was a goner anyway, poured some over the label. For a brief period it clearly showed "Y WHITE W" in the same font as this photo. I guess it's no longer a mystery stone

Very nice stone. Those old pike LW's are the best IMO.
Simple green is great to clean up the stones, but as we both found out the hard way it's not so good for the labels.

I have a solid white NOS Norton Washita 8" x 2" x 1" dated around 1953. Are these Lily Whites?

Dcaddo111 said:

Very nice stone. Those old pike LW's are the best IMO.
Simple green is great to clean up the stones, but as we both found out the hard way it's not so good for the labels.

Click to expand...

My label was pretty much a goner, very dark with oil and unreadable. Just glad a little SG revealed its identity.

So, I see mixed messages in this thread. Can it be used in a progression for razors or should I keep it for chisels?

kelbro said:

I have a solid white NOS Norton Washita 8" x 2" x 1" dated around 1953. Are these Lily Whites?

Click to expand...

There were many grades of Washita, without a label that confirms that it is Lily White, there is no way to know.

PapaFish said:

There were many grades of Washita, without a label that confirms that it is Lily White, there is no way to know.

Click to expand...

Just WB8 and Norton stamp on the stone. Behr-Manning WB8 by Norton on the box.

Haggises said:

My label was pretty much a goner, very dark with oil and unreadable. Just glad a little SG revealed its identity.

So, I see mixed messages in this thread. Can it be used in a progression for razors or should I keep it for chisels?

Click to expand...

IMO they can definitely be used successfully in a razor progression, but where they really shine is for tools. You can touch up chisels or plane irons to hair popping sharp in minutes. I love washitas. They're my second favorite stones

kelbro said:

Just WB8 and Norton stamp on the stone. Behr-Manning WB8 by Norton on the box.

Click to expand...

I have a WB6 that's simply labeled Washita. FWIW it's a heck of a stone. It has a very high pitch ring when you tap it, and it's semi translucent. I've been meaning to check the SG on my hoard of Washitas and see how it changes from stone to stone.

Yesterday I saw Y WHITE W

Now gone, and a splash more of SG revealed a faint WASH

Haggises said:

My label was pretty much a goner, very dark with oil and unreadable. Just glad a little SG revealed its identity.

So, I see mixed messages in this thread. Can it be used in a progression for razors or should I keep it for chisels?

Click to expand...

Well, That's difficult to answer. Here are five of my washitas:


#1. A translucent red. Fastest cutter with razors. Definitely could bevel a razor, easily.
#2 Suspect this is a low grade stone. Very Calico colored, several flaws on surface, can sense the cutting is irregular from end to end. Probably a #2 or lower I'd guess. Cuts substantially slower than #1,3 and 4.
#3 This had a label but nothing was legible... mostly glue backing and some paper in a rectangle on the unused side. Suspect it's a #1, maybe a LWW or Woodworkers/Carpenters friend. Very regular cutter and fast... but not as fast as #1.
#4 Similar appearance to #3, but slightly less white. Suspect it was a #1, maybe #2 but no label. Cuts noticeably slower than #3, but still significantly faster than #2, also very regularly, but again slightly less so than #3.
#5 (in next post) This is a labeled LWW... one image is trying to bevel on it... the other is using it after a finisher. It's very very slow with razors. Slower than my translucent and surgical black arkansas. It also degrades an edge to below where I'm comfortable shaving. But as you can see, it does give a moderately refined edge if you spend a LOT of time on it... but I wouldn't consider it an acceptable beveler for razors. While #1 above is actually pretty fast as a beveler, and 3 and 4 are both passable... #5 is definitely not. In general... it may with a lot of practice and effort be fit into a razor honing progression... but it's so far from ideal, that I'd consider getting to that point rather a waste of time.


I can see the E also. So now it says E WASH