Need help identifying vintage stone

Gentlemen,

I am a newbie to honing and I have acquired a light brown stone 8" x 1 7/8" x 1" that has two of it's edges ground on an angle. It is a hard, smooth stone that will ring like a bell when struck. I would be very appreciative if someone can help me identify the type of stone and the purpose of the ground edges.

Hello and welcome.
My guess, from the hip, would be a washita. If you want to clean it up let it soak over night in simple green...you'll be surprised what it looks like the next day.

Dcaddo111 said:

Hello and welcome.
My guess, from the hip, would be a washita. If you want to clean it up let it soak over night in simple green...you'll be surprised what it looks like the next day.

Click to expand...

+1 to Davids word....it looks mostly like a Washita type

Welcome to B&B. What they said. Arkansas/Washita type.

The ground edges could be chip repairs, which is not uncommon for natural stones.

This is what it looks like after a bath in Simple Green.

Could be an old, yellowed lily white. My experience has been that Simple Green is very effective in removing standing oil and swarf to arrive at the matrix surface with with the least amount of effort. The price is that it raises the surface grain of the stone.

This being the case, you may want to lap the honing surface to around 400x-600x to smooth it. Then slap some fresh oil on that thing and make it whistle!

Would 600 wet or dry on a polished marble tile be an appropriate approach to lapping the stone?

Yes and no. Assuming it is indeed a Arkansas/Washita type stone, it will be resistant to lapping as it is very hard, so you have to start out at the bottom end working up. Normally, I use silicon carbide powder on granite or glass, 120x > 240x > 320x. Then I switch to wet/dry sandpaper on granite or glass, 400x-600x on up to 2000x in the case of polishing a black hard Arkansas for use as a finishing stone. But as this is presumed to be a Washita, and tending more towards bevel-setting to initial polishing stage, I would only be inclined to lap it to 400x or 600x. But again, you need to start low to override the raised grain caused by the Simple Green. If the stone is flat enough, 80x > 120x> 220x > 400x w/d would work (woodworker.com has the lower end stuff). But the SiC powder is far better for flattening hard stones that are out of true at the low end.

Thanks!