Identification help of an old stone I just aquired

Hi all,

I found this very nice looking old girl today when I was at a market where a guy was selling lots of old tools etc. He had some lovely stuff and I couldn't go past this.

I wonder if anyone can hazard a guess?

It's a brown colour when held to the light. Almost like a leather / dark tan colour. It's VERY smooth. If I drag my nail over my King 1k, my Suehiro Rika 6k and my Welsh purple to give a rough comparison it's more akin to the purple in terms of how much it grabs my nail. What I mean by that is, it doesn't grab my nail at all. The 1k grabs a lot, the 6k has a buttery feel when I drag my nail. The welsh slate and this oilstone are both VERY smooth and no drag exists.

It's definitely a natural stone, I can see the grain in the light and along the edges. The photos obviously aren't showing the colour or grain but it's there.

It's an oil stone no doubt as you can see from the years of oil that's soaked into the wood.

So I know it's a tough question, but... what do you all think it may be?

You have to get all the old oil off and out of it

Yes please clean it and lap it on the top surface, then add additional shots

Hit the stone with some oven cleaner or a simple green soak

OK will do. Watch this space.

OK, I soaked and scrubbed a lot of gunk out of it. I then started on lapping but my sandpaper tore mid lap so this is as far as I got today. I'll have to hit the hardware store later to get more paper to continue. Does its current status give any hints?

Still hard to tell...could be an India or probably a washita...lets see what others say

Looks like an oil soaked synth I bought once.

Looks India to me

It's definitely got grain so won't be a synthetic. I'll bring it back some more this weekend. See what we get

I'm like 80% sure that's a fine india. I've had one just like it that I took for a very weird Washita until I pried it from the box and saw the Label and date of manufacture stamped on the underside of it.

She scrubbed up beautifully. Especially that old box. Here's some final photos. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I would guess soft arkansas or washita.