On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 17:27:41 GMT, Charles Krug wrote:

Thank you for the advice. I bought a few of these stones from estate sales
and it is easy to tell an oilstone or waterstone by traces of oil. How do you
compare "coarse" and "fine" when you have no reference? I estimate the stones
maybe 1000 grits or above from ex-woodworkers' basement and one of the oilstone
is red color "Norton".

Anymore suggestion? Thanks again.

More practicle for home use might be to try working some mild steel and
see what sort of finish it gives compared to your other stones.

The fact that I sand 80-100-120-150-180 is really only a convenience.
The essential information is "start coarse, end fine."

So long as you have a handle on how it compares to your other stones,
that's all you need to know.