A purchase of unknown origin

I don't even know if it is a Jnat or something else.


It will not give up slurry easily, I used a worn fine credit card diamond I normally use for slurry, the stone just laughed at it; I had to use a 400 Atoma, I got a creamy white to beige .
I did a scratch test and I shows a 4 (mohs) which is Florite, but a worn diamond will not bring a slurry. I must be doing something wrong.
I takes about 5 minutes to soak up most of the water from wet.
The fault you see is not noticeable when honing and I cannot feel it from the top. I don’t know what the sparkles are when dry, maybe silica.
This is a VERY hard stone. Probably a 9.2 out of 10. The razor just glides over it so I assume it would need a slurry to work.

I did lap it up to 2000 film without too much trouble. I have not tried to hone a razor with it yet, just tried a couple of swipes and it is like stropping glass.


1 min after wet


2 min after wet


Slurry from Atoma 400


Wet and dry

Dalmore? That's just a guess by the looks. Never owned one personally

Post #2


Back, the marks are from the stone was resting on a shelf liner






The fault is not noticeable when honing.

hig789 said:

Dalmore? That's just a guess by the looks. Never owned one personally

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Never heard of a Dalmore....

Keith's. http://www.tomonagura.com/Escher-Razor-Hones/dalmore-blue.html

I assume there are different patterns. But yours does look like sandstone in the pics when dry like Keith describes.

It's just a guess lol

Yeah maybe it's too dark to be a hindostan

Yeah, I saw that auction and figured it for sure a dalmore.

Most say a Dalmore is a 4-6k stone, a fast cutter. I don't believe this to be fast at anything except something sliding off of it.
I would say it is more of a base stone for a slurry or maybe an oil stone. It is more like my Black Hard Ark except it feels slicker.

Could be a Dalmore. I've seen a few different types of patterns, rings, whorls, wavy lines.. etc.
Just as easily, it could be something else too.

Soak it in Simple Green for a few hours, rinse/clean this off and let it dry, then photograph it dry outside. Sedimentary lines on the side make me think it's a Hindostan.

Edit: that crack looks pretty severe.

At first glance I wanted to believe it was a synthetic stone, perhaps made by Keith, or someone else who likes to fiddle around lol.

But honestly, I did think it looked synthetic. I have this weird little brown stone, I'll take pics of it sometime, that I'm sure is synthetic, like a big thick barber hone or something.

Dalmore Stone, looks like the bending on these from the side, should be something between 4-6K....
The Swirls and bending look different on each stone..

@dta116
check Henks Bos PDF Files "Grinding and Honing Part 1-4" here on his webpage:
www.bosq.home.xs4all.nl the Dalmore blue is mentioned in Part 3, and all the other nice stones ;-)

^Yeah, I've seen way too many Dalmores that look like dead ringers for that to think it could be anything else. Dalmores have a lot of visual cues, and that stone shows them.

I have to admit that the pattern of the ID stone looks really nice and spectacular....but i have seen many comparable ones...

Ok, the consensus seems correct, it must be a Dalmore although I am getting a different experience than most folks. I consider this particular stone to be a finisher.

I just honed a Kamisori and two Wapis' and all gave a tremendous shave off of the hone. The shave was better than I have been getting off of any other pre-finisher, and as well as most finishers I have.
It cuts fairly quickly as well.

I used it with a diamond slurry, thinned to finish, then strop for a great shave.

I guess it was a good purchase for a pile of stones for a small outlay.

I guess that settles that......until someone has a better idea?

Thanks all, Dave

Hi Dave your experiences in my thinking would normally rule out a Dalmore....i never tried but my guess would be its umcomfortable to shave of a Dalmore Stone...

What finishers do you have ?

dta116 said:

Ok, the consensus seems correct, it must be a Dalmore although I am getting a different experience than most folks. I consider this particular stone to be a finisher.

I just honed a Kamisori and two Wapis' and all gave a tremendous shave off of the hone. The shave was better than I have been getting off of any other pre-finisher, and as well as most finishers I have.
It cuts fairly quickly as well.

I used it with a diamond slurry, thinned to finish, then strop for a great shave.

I guess it was a good purchase for a pile of stones for a small outlay.

I guess that settles that......until someone has a better idea?

Thanks all, Dave

Click to expand...

Using a diamond slurry would seem to disguise the stone's actual properties in this regard, no?

I doubt the Diamond-raised Slurry is the X factor. It's probably a good example compounded by factors in the shave (Dalmores Vary a lot, some people have found examples they say are capable finishers). Depends on a lot of things. How effective your stropping is, how much your shaving technique depends on a sharp blade, and how sharp of a razor you're used to. When I was starting out I shaved pretty comfortably off a Washita, off a Jnat without stropping, etc. These days, I wouldn't finish a single pass with those edges. A few months back we had a guy shaving off a fine India and swearing up and down we were wrong on the ID because of how good the shave was. These things happen.

Just based on looks, I'd say it's 99-100% certain that's a Dalmore. If you look at razorandstone forums, theres a member there named Piet who posted several Dalmore's and it's pretty clear that's what this stone is once you've seen a few of them.

I've seen a top end for Dalmore blues claimed to be around 6-8k (Norton), with some examples falling closer to 2-4k. Looks like you got a finer example. Nice score.

Alum of Potash said:

Using a diamond slurry would seem to disguise the stone's actual properties in this regard, no?

Click to expand...

Actually, the stones slurry raised with a diamond is it's own slurry, just like a Jnat. It is part of the host stone. The difference would be that the slurry is of larger particles and would break down to much finer particles with blade movement hence faster cuts. Compare that to a nagura witch is not part of the stone and the slurry generated is usually finer to start with and would be a slower cut and require more strokes.

If the slurry was not used on this stone, it would take forever to put an edge on the razor with plain water. In fact it seems like it doesn't cut at all without slurry. I never really tried to see how long it would take to get to a decent edge without slurry. It may even be an oil stone for all I know, but it works with slurry for sure.

In all respects it seems like a Jnat with the texture maybe not as velvety (is that a word?).

As I said, this is not a soft stone, although the mohs test rates it at 4, it requires a diamond to raise a slurry.

I can find no other stones in references that would define this as other that a Dalmore. If this is not a Dalmore, it is a stone that should be in the references for sure. Somebody would have found, used and distributed this stone for all to use. It is too good of a stone to overlook.

I am just glad I found it. It works very well for the kamisoris', perfect width, and for that occasionally difficult edge that needs a narrower approach.

So, in conclusion, for me it would progress as;

Chosera 800
Maybe a Chosera 2k (depends on the bevel at this stage)
either a Silkvien, Dragon's Tongue, or a soft Ark
Then to a diamond slurry on the Dalmore stone.

Works pretty darn good.

Thanks for the journey, it was a hoot. You guys' are a diverse bunch, and this is how it should be. Lessons learned....
Dave

Sorry, I took "diamond slurry" as written to be just that, a diamond slurry, rather than a slurry raised with a diamond hone. Better to be clear about this IMO as some folks do use diamonds on their stones.