Stone ID

[Graham Haydon]

Hoping some folks could help me out. I picked up a stone at a local vintage fair for 50p. As I'm UK based I assume it's a Charnley or a Turkey. I did Image searches but the on line search did not help to much. Thanks in advance for any help

Cheers

Graham

Oilstone 2.jpg

Oil Stone.jpg

[David Weaver]

The bottom looks like a charnley, but the top does not so much. Turkish oilstones generally are more black or dark brown with brownish inclusions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EIe-e6yP64

It doesn't really look like a llyn idwall, either. You may wish to show it to neil miller on straightrazorplace.com

It looks novaculite to me, if I had to guess, and at 50p, a great deal if it's usable at all.

[David Eisenhauer]

I was going to ask if that is the best you could do in framing or whatever it is they call it when one displays an object for a photograph by selecting the angle, light and background to shoot the object in, but I won't because it will be considered an ill-humored reply rather than one offered in jest. Assuming the darkish lump with white mildew? is the object in question, what happens if you run it across a flattening plate or sandpaper or whatever you use to expose some fresh stone to view? Because right now, it looks like what we in the US would call a piece of 2x4 stuck in the sewage drain. And I believe Turkeys have feathers and isn't Charnley one of those weird relishes that the Brits use on meat instead of an honest BBQ sauce?

[Matthew N. Masail]

The bottom edge looks like a fossilized frog from here ...

[Graham Haydon]

Thanks . Yes not the best photo! David E, I think you are thinking of Picalili not Charnely and Matthew I can confirm there is no anphibian beneath . David W I tried to PM you the photo as I felt most would find it amusing but could not attach an image. The view so far is mostly in favor of Charnley. I have lightly refreshed it and it cuts ok as a honing stone. Not as slow as I thought based on folks writing and for 50p it's easier to use than Welsh slate that I tried. Thanks for the replies.

[David Weaver]

Have you had the luck of using a hard arkansas stones? If it's a charnley or an idwall, it should be novaculite and just be a little softer than a US origin novaculite stone. I would love to get my hands on all kinds of stuff from europe, but the trouble is that people in the US see charnley's and idwalls as fairly valuable, and the way that you usually find them is on ebay where too many people see them. You can find washitas for a song over here from time to time, but not often large hard arkansas stones. But english novaculites are rare (they never would've taken hold here with the wide availability of arkansas and washita stones).

If it helps, most idwalls I've seen are more regular shaped. I know nothing about the quarries. The charnley stones are often long and irregular like that and set in plaster. I don't like them quite as much as a hard arkansas, but they are still interesting stones - anything that you can just take out of the ground, slice off a face flat, lap it and then bring a tool to an edge is pretty cool.

[Graham Haydon]

I did try a modern "Hard Arkansas" & "Washita". The Arkansas was nice and consistent the washita was meh. I would dearly like a "proper" washita but we have have the opposite situation here. Washita, unless spotted at second hand jumble, fetch a high(too high for me) price. Sadly Charnley is also too pricey (unless you get it for 50p). The cheapest honing stone here is Welsh slate but I found I was having to be too carefull. A nice stone but a little too soft for me.

The more web trawling I've done the more likely I feel it's a Charnley. There was a worm eaten box with the traces of plaster next to it in the jumble. I gave it a little go on a plane iron and it was nice, honed well and gave good edge. Similar to the Arkansas I suppose. I'll keep my eye out for a vintage Washita.