David Weaver
Before the internet and strong grading information, it appears that smiths and some others sold "hard" stones that don't meet the definition we're used to (nearly poreless). Norton's hards have always been black or trans, or gray trans.

This is a "smiths hard". We would consider it a soft arkansas with some tooth, and it has just a hint of washita behavior. Not sure why that is - it's a bit more toothy, but it's an interesting stone.

Here's the issue - this one was $10 plus $10 shipping. It's fantastic at that. I often see them listed for a price that one would buy a used true hard ($100). They are no good at that. It says hard on the box and someone does an ebay search to figure out a price, and then that's that.

This is also a "teachable" moment - this stone can still be manipulated based on steel hardness, settling in of the stone and pressure.

First, a softer carbon steel iron- stropped and not buffed on the opposite side (notice that there are little bits left in the edge - this would be a good usable sharp iron and the speed of the stone makes it likely that most would do better iwth this stone than a trans or black - they'd finish the job easily).

if the opposite side is finished with the buffer rather than this stone and a bare strop, notice the little nits at the edge are gone - this is a better edge.

And after that iron (which is probably mid-high 50s in hardness), my house O1 iron, which is more like 62/63, tempered only enough to stop chipping.

Notice how the edge is a little finer - the abrasive in arkansas stones gives some ability to game edge finish quality on a given stone by matching steel hardness. To see this, look less at the scratches on the back and more directly at the edge.

Now, here's the important point. This stone isn't as good as my washitas, but it was (and should be cheap) and is otherwise *great* uniform quality. It's a fine soft arkansas stone and I don't abrade it. If you stick your neck out and buy a new $180 trans or black stone, will it be better than the finish of this iron after 15 seconds on dursol on softwood (hardwood would be better - this ate up the white pine that I tried it on because the wood is just too soft).

The answer is no. This is kind of like the comment I made to wiley yesterday about two matched cheap japanese stones generally beating really expensive finishers that are fine and relatively fast for japanese stones.

Both the bevel and back side could be addressed in 15 seconds if this was done on cherry instead of white pine. The edge rounding would be slightly less. This is yet another budget setup that's fast, easy to complete and better than expensive stones of any type.