Thread: JNAT Triboluminance:or Pizzaelectric Effect

Have any of you Jnat honers experienced triboluminance or Piezoelectric effect when honing with a Jnat or any other natural stones?

The other day while finishing a razor on a Nakayama kiita Iromono, I noticed when flipping at the end of a stroke a yellow/orange Triboluminance as droplets fell from the razor and hit the stone. The drop would light up and either dance across the stone to the edge on the sheet of slurry water, like a spark or break up into smaller droplets and then splayed out across the stone in random pattern like a firework.

The effect only occurred as the drop hit the stone.

I have never experienced this with any other stone, but have with this stone in the past. I don’t think I could photograph the effect, without a high-speed camera.

From what I can gather it is a Piezoelectric effect or Triboluminance and commonly seen as a parlor trick when crushing sugar candy, or striking two quartz crystals together.

I have not tried to reproduce the effect, with this or other stones and was wondering if it was this particular stone, slurry combination, the lighting or all three. The slurry was pretty thin.

Anyone else noticed this?