Thread: I Found It Over There

[Continued from previous post.]

I then removed the grooves from the DMT with a Naniwa A-206, the small red cubic one, which does a wonderful job, not only at removing the grooves, but also at leaving what I feel to be the perfect abrasive surface of the particular stone. All along carefully checking and correcting for flatness. This was the result:







As you can see, the honing surface is very heterogeneous. The shiny area at one end feels very hard and almost “rugged” under the blade of the razor that I summarily tested on the stone (with no satisfaction.) In addition to that, there are plenty of minute pyrites scattered over the honing surface (the darker specs on the picture):


I managed to take some pictures of such through a pseudo-microscope (with a scale in millimetres, each line marking a tenth of a millimetre, or 4 thousandths of an inch) (they are the gold-looking things, if you can notice them):






I’ll spent a little more time testing the stone, but I’m afraid it was justly discarded by the workers of the time, who judged it unfit to hone and therefore did not trouble themselves with flattening the faces. Dumped unfinished; I suppose that was the first step to its journey ending out in the open, on a village path, where the copper etcher found it years ago, rather than in a house.
And I’m still not certain what kind of stone it is.

Finding good subjects with very consistent matrix is a big challenge. I hope to get back to making some hones. I love that there are several people all over looking and trying.

Very nice writeup explaining. It is cool to try out rocks to see if they will hone well. I have not tried it myself but love to see others doing it and with nice pictures too.

That is certainly a big chunk of stone. There's something very satisfying about pulling a rock from the wild and turning it into a stone that is useful. Sometimes it results in making and nicely shaped door stop but other times it can result in a very useful hone.

Nice piece on your adventures with that one.

I am waiting for some coarser SIC powder to use for flattening out that giant hunk of what I believe is sandstone and for giving a rougher surface to one side of the "bacon strip" quartzite in hopes of getting a bevel setter-finishing stone. Both of which just previous.

Just a wild guess you have a siltstone or shale there. Pyrite is a common component with those. Of course there are others but that's my guess.

Came across a area that was landscaped with I think is pieces of slate, or shale. Some have been cut, then busted, others are just pieces.



One piece particularly caught my eye, being it looked like a broken, hone.




Lapped it with 220 SIC wet/dry paper.





Gave it a test drive on a blade, with slurry, and just water.

Slurry leaves a nice hazy finish, water only looks nice, with a nice polish that looks suitable for shaving. Tree tops easily without being stropped, but the true test is in the shave....right.!

I'll say this though..When the lite hits this stone at certain angles, it looks metallic. As seen in the first pic.

I think I shall burnish it, see if I can't get more out of it. But not bad for a first try at it.

Nice find. It’s a nice size for honing.

In the first wet pic it looks green-ish like a Vermont slate. In the second it looks more grey. I have a small Thuri with that colour.

Anxious to hear what kind of shaving edge it gives.

I don't have high hopes on the edge, being it leaves some lite stria within the bevel. Not as clean as a Thurigan, but similar to a Coti.

But yeah...me curious, too. Maybe a touch on Cr/Ox to finalize it.

Originally Posted by outback

Came across a area that was landscaped with I think is pieces of slate, or shale. Some have been cut, then busted, others are just pieces.



One piece particularly caught my eye, being it looked like a broken, hone.




Lapped it with 220 SIC wet/dry paper.





Gave it a test drive on a blade, with slurry, and just water.

Slurry leaves a nice hazy finish, water only looks nice, with a nice polish that looks suitable for shaving. Tree tops easily without being stropped, but the true test is in the shave....right.!

I'll say this though..When the lite hits this stone at certain angles, it looks metallic. As seen in the first pic.

I think I shall burnish it, see if I can't get more out of it. But not bad for a first try at it.

Hey Mike,

Get out of my flower garden! /H

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Another project once I get out from under some of the others.

Not sure exactly what this thing is but it is a big ol' honkin' thing. This is just how I found it.
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14“ long and 4" wide. I'm hoping it will make a gigantic natural bevel setter but we'll see. It seems coarse but it is definitely hard. I'm not sure how coarse it will be after lapping.

I finally got around to lapping the giant slab.


I don't know what it is but I know what it isn't and that's the bevel setter I was hoping for. I used the coarsest SIC I have and it has a pretty coarse surface. The stria it leaves looks like what a washita makes but after quite a period of making laps on that giant thing it will not create a drag on the TNT. I initially used a rather rough Thistle brand that I have lying around and thought that maybe the steel was just really hard so I switched over to an also rough Bengal and did the same with the same results. I also did some sets of the down and back half laps and was having lots of trouble geting it to leave even a slight burr. Maybe it's a mid range. Maybe it's a finisher or maybe it's a doorstop. I haven't figured that out yet. I'm not giving up yet but I was really hopeful that it would be a quick cutting bevel setter.

Still not certain but I really think it's old red sandsotne. Here's a close look.


Any opinions?