Try a Vintage Oilstone! Washita is a GREAT option 👍. 

The internet DOES need sharpening videos! Thanks!

I got a couple arks that need a box like yours. Thanks for the idea.

I read that when Washitas arrived in the UK towards the end of the 19 century they swept the market amongst carpenters and joiners. They were just so much faster than anything else and also no two were exactly the same. I find that chisels and plane irons seem made for Washitas and as you say there is something about oil, stone and steel. On the other hand knives seem to like water and Japanese ceramics.

I love the boxes you made ! Awesome done.

I have two of those in boxes looking exactly like yours. Maybe the same person who made them because I bought them both from GB. They are perfect for the old steel tools. They sharpen fast and quite well. Just thinking you are sharpening on a stone that some artisan one hundred years ago used is priceless. All you need is one of those washitas and a strop.

Gimme that type of stone all day long

Silicon carbide lapping grit is very fast, 20 minutes tops, to flatten an old oilstone of any kind. Since it's used with water or oil, there's no need to breath the silica dust created with other methods of lapping.

I got seriously lucky about a year ago at a car boot with a 14" x 2 1/2 to 3" tapered Charnley forest stone for the princely sum of 50p. The seller said that someone had bought the case but didn't want the 'dirty old stone' in it, so knocked it out and left it behind ! ....... wish I could get that lucky that every week, but a shame I didn't get there half an hour earlier and get the box too ;>) ..... having said that, I am normally there before 5am most Sundays. Yesterday I got a Hindostan [ Indiana, US. natural siltstone ] 8 1/2 x 2 1/4" along with full set of cutters for a combination plane .... all for a couple of quid. That stone is very gummed up with crusty old oil and iron swarf and needs a serious de-greasing before flattening- any suggestions as to the best way to deep clean the black 'gunk' ??

I have 3 diamond stones but recently got a soft and black Arkansas stone and I love the “feel” of the natural stones. I still use my diamonds if I have to take a slight chip or ding out, but love using the natural stones to finish off my honing before stroping.

There's a lot of variability with natural stones and availability is limited today. You're lucky you got a good one. They also don't work too well with harder modern alloy steels either. Some tools today are just too hard. So because of all of that I've switched to synthetic diamond plates today myself. No fuss and no muss. Diamonds are always flat and they cut everything. Know where to get them and they're cheap too. I get mine straight out of China off Aliexpress. I pay $6.36 for a 9" x 3" plate. It won't last forever. I get a few years out of one before it wears out. The cheap plates are polycrystalline. So the diamonds break down. But when they're good they can't be beat. Oh, you want the continuous type one. Just 1,000 grit is all you need to sharpen with. Coarser grits can be handy for other uses. I know a guy that reconditions a lot of oil stones and he flattens them on a belt sander. A real dust cloud blows off doing that so look out.

How did you flatten it cheers.

I always wondered what the pieces of extra wood at the ends of the stone on one of the boxes was. I assume it's just to give more surface area to lay the tool when sharpening I assume. I love the old washita stones and Arkansas stones.

You should start selling sharpening stone boxes you make yourself. 😉