I Found It Over There

One of the local slate hones I found, cleaned up to 800 grit and used on several tools. I have found larger chunks but I haven't lapped them yet. This one sits comfortably in my hand.

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Not only am I now lusting over razors, you guys have me inspecting every rock I see. I know jack squat about geology or what really makes a good hone, but all of it is quite interesting to me. Here are a few I picked up the other day. I picked these mainly because they have the small specks of glitter looking material that my C12k has. Try not to make too much fun of me, I have no clue what I'm doing

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It's ok to be just running at it blind because that is what I have done. I have had a great time and found some really great hones and a lot of hone shaped rocks. For me I use what I would call a brute force attack. I just keep looking and testing. I have some areas that I can go to that yield quite nice hones but for me my exploration is not done. There is always more to see and find. I was out last weekend and got a bunch of rock. When I get a chance I will spend a weekend cutting it and many evenings lapping and honing. If nothing else it keeps me out of the bar.

Thats what I was thinking, something else to do that keeps me out of trouble that I can have fun with.

I cut the small black stone and am lapping it as we speak. It is very hard and produces a very fine gray slurry. This will be interesting.

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I have a procedure for lapping that has me lapping under water. In time I will build something to make it go faster but for now it is all hand lapping. I put the pug in the sink and then a thick piece of umber mat and the the dmt and rub the rock against the dmt while it is under water. If it works out that your sink is at a good height the ergonomics are not bad. In an attempt to find rocks that are not crazy hard I often hit the rocks with a 5lb hammer to check them. I think at this point that mid range and a bevel setter would be my holy grail. I have some recent coarse rock that I have not had the chance to refine, but I am always hopeful.

I usually look for sedimentary rocks or rocks that fracture conchoidally then do some quick preliminary tests with a piece of old file to see if it cuts hard steel, also use the hammer test like Shaun. Here are some of my more recent stones:

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I think the rocks that conchiodally fracture make them novaculites, which is a large group that includes the arkies. All the rocks I play with are from the metamorphic family. One of my bad habits is getting too many rocks ahead of myself and then I can't remember which rock came from where.

Ok....you guys are getting way ahead of me lol. I have seen some formations with mybe one inch thick layers that could be seperated fairly easily, I just have to remember where I saw them. These I picked up only because they looked interesting. The green one is made up of paper thin layers, it almost looks like hair up close. All three take steel from a file on the lapped areas. Thank you guys for providing some good info. I'm still lapping, my arm is gettin tiered.

eKretz, when you check with the file, is this on a small lapped area or on a fractured face? I'm assuming you are talking about checking rocks in the field before bringing them home.

This is on an area already lapped on the DMT.