Hindo?

So I picked up a stone for next to nothing. Total gamble. Box looks early 20th century to me, stone was massively dished and looked like it may be yellow, so I threw a small bid at it figuring low odds but low cost. It gets here and I figure it for a synth, though the dimensions don't really match up. It's 8.5x2.3" and I'd guess 1" thick originally. I clean it a bit (very soft, wears fast as hell) and I'm thinking it's some kind of a sandstone. It feels pretty smooth, but not quite razor finisher. I'd guess 3-5k JIS or thereabouts. Does this look right for a hindostan? I can't be sure on the layering yet, looks very faint, but I figure once I level it out, I'll clean it up better and then it should be apparent if it is or isn't.

Ok, it's not 3-5k. More like 2k. Pretty coarse.

Cool looking rock. A natural 2k with speed is a good thing.

We'll have to see about speed. It's definitely an oilstone. It Massacres the edge on slurry. On oil the edge reminds me a lot of the 118s, which I felt was 3-4k norton or 2-3k Jis range. It's pretty unimpressive for a razor, but I expect it would have its uses with other tools. The wavy pattern is much more visible now that it's cleaned up.

And though it wears very quickly, it doesn't gouge easily, so it works pretty well for knives. Seems about an alternative to Washita, though it didn't strike me as quite so fast or useful. I'll play around with it a bit more for fun.

Don't think it's a hindo. No close and even layers on the side now that it's cleaned up.

Could it be a Washita?

No. It's way too soft under the lapping stones. Feel is different too. Doesn't have the porosity to the surface. Definitely a sandstone or something along those lines. Honestly, I'd be happier with a Washita. Not a bad stone, raises a burr almost as well as a Washita, but doesn't seem quite as fast or fine and I suspect it will wear quicker. Other than the fact I got a new and unfamiliar nat stone, I'd consider this a lost gamble. Yeah it's not an india or crystolon, the usual "loss" stones when gambling on oilstones, but honestly it's just not that good of a stone. Reminds me a bit of the Queer Creek I used to have in that respect. I'm sure it was a fine stone in its day, but truth be told these days, why ever use one over a synth?

I'll probably keep it as a part of my collection until I get sick of it, then toss it on eBay if it looks like I can get more than the cost of shipping out it.

Might be a Queer Creek, not a blue though. The other kind. Description fits.

Never knew there were multiple varieties of QC. Thanks, I'll look into it when I've got a bit of time.

Are queer creeks really as slow as ppl say, or are they only slow w/o pressure?

There's a yellowish one. Don't know much about it though. Not sure what the differences are outside of them not being blue.

Slow - mmm.. yeah the blue is slow but it doesn't make me want to throw it out the window.
I don't know anything about those yellow ones - I've only seen them in pix.
With the blue, some pressure brings some speed. Prob best as a tool hone. I just like the label.

I have what I will call a white Queer Creek with a Norton Behr-Manning label. From recollection (I'm away from it right now), it doesn't really resemble the stone pictured here. I also have a blue Queer Creek. Sandstone comes to mind, as does homogeneous.

Might be nice to take a peak at that "early 20th century" box, and the surfaces and sides of the stone shot in color-balanced daylight.

There was a type of sandstone quarried in/around the Queer Creek area that turned a 'rusty' or amber/yellow when out of the ground.
Without a label - hard to say. A lot of those stones were never labeled in the first place.
If there are visible layers in the stone, I don't know if that is part of the genre or not.
Sandstone can be shaly, so layers are possible I suppose.
I'm not a fan of honing on sandstones - although the Blue doesn't kill me to use it for that.
It will, as Ian noted - massacre the edge if slurried.

I'll get some better pics up tomorrow or monday.

Layers, eh I'm not so sure now. It certainly looked like there were faint layers when I got it, but cleaned up, I don't really see any consistent layers other than what might be one bisecting the stone, with the top side being a tiny shade lighter than the bottom, but that could just be some oil soaking that I didn't fully clean.

The edge is pretty decent on knives. Cuts a hair better than off a washita on my Latham & Owen, and the edge held up on a poly board far longer. I didn't have to steel it until I was wrapping up. It was a tiny bit dull for some of the more delicate slicing I did, but a couple slaps on an ark afterwards should get it ready to go.

Here's the pics

Not what I've seen listed as a Queer Creek stones, but anything is possible.
If it's a sandstone, it's definitely a possibility but probably not a branded stone from there.
Whatever it is - it's pretty cool looking.

Thanks for the new pix of the stone and box. Most curious. Any possible link to the stone's origin relative to the seller's location?

Sydney, Ohio. The seller has a dozen auctions for a random assortment of vintage goods going at any given time, so I expect he buys at estate auctions or something similar.

Ohio... hmmmmm

Yeah. Are there yellow QC's? I don't think I've ever seen one, and the grey/blue ones I've owned had no patterning (almost look like light-colored carbos) and were a little coarser.

I remember reading about sandstone that turned an amber/reddish or rust color when taken out of the groung.
I have seen yellowish QC stones, labeled ones - could be bad color balance though. Hard to rely on pix sometimes.

My understanding is that there was a LOT of sandstone whetstones of various types/colors quarried out of that area.