My wife recently purchased a tool box at an estate sale with a number of carving tools (she is a wood carver).  Among the various chisels and knives were several slip stones and other sharpening stones.  One stone which I promptly stowed away was what looks to be a NOS 1 X 2 X 8 item marked Norton KB-8 Queer Creek Sharpening Stone, Made in US of A. The surface is pristine and seems to be a quite fine grit.  A Google search just gave some individual's guess that this stone is in the 600 – 1000 grit range.  Does anyone know with any degree of certainty what the grit is?  Question #2 is there any down side to using what probably was intended to be an oil stone with water as the lubricant?  I already use water (or honing solution) with my water stone and steel diamond plate.

This web site says it is a common medium - course grit that you should use water on.

http://heimerdingercutlery.com/shop/norton-85730-clear-creek-bench-stone-kb-8-8/

Read this too.

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/424966-Norton-Queer-Clear-Creek-(Ohio-Blue)-KB8-stone

Thanks for the info, folks.