Black Hones

[pedro083]

Well I only have heard of one black one and that would be arkansas stone, Is there any others I am missing as have seen this one listed below but as a slate stone so was just wondering, sorry only bad pic I have could ask for more.

If there is other stones I have not thought of that are black I will get more pics

 

[Neil Miller]

Hard to tell from the photo, like you say!

Some thuringians can be very dark - if they have been used with oil (I have seen a lot of old ones that were) then they appear really dark.

Slate stones used with water usually appear greyish, but once again if they have been used with oil they appear quite dark. A lot were used with oil.

The very fine, often soft, man-mad hones are very dark when used with oil - some appear quite black. Oily deposits that have hardened can make it hard to identify the stone as man-made.

The seller must have some reason to call the stone a slate-stone. Historically, the term 'honing slate' has encompassed a wide range of stones, including thuringian, arkansas, charnley forest, etc, so the term might not be helpful as the very hard novaculites like charnley forest and arkansas are quite unlike the softer thuringians.

If it is actually slate it will be around 5k - 8k: most likely towards the lower end of the scale.

Regards,
Neil

 

[pedro083]

Cheers Neil, for some reason never thought about the think being soaked in oil .
Its not cheap enough to take a blind punt on so will ask for some more pictures, might see if I can get them to take it out the box see if the other side will give me more of a clue.

 

[Arrowhead]

I've got a slate kicking about that looks a lot like that, very dark charcoal grey rather than pitch black, and full of oil. Frankly it's a neither one thing nor t'other sort of stone, too fine for bevel setting, way too rough for razor polishing, but it's a good woodworker's stone.