Thread: Agates and Jaspers

Glad you're still playing with it. They're great inexpensive novelty stones, and they can put a wicked polish on a razor if you're willing to play with them.

I also have a petrified palm slab and a petrified wood slab to lap up and play with.

I have few jaspers - lidyte ,rusian jasper white and black , 2 green jaspers from Bulgaria and 1 cretan hone witch is something like it . They all varie in grit , properties , speed and scratch patern . rusian Belorechit white 6K t 8 K and green Bulgarian jasper , and Cretan a re 8 - 9 k levell faster that the other ones . butt still every one is diferent .
lidyte is finer 10 12 K and harder , gives wicked edje with soapy watter . The black rusian lasper is softer and roughter on slurry - this is my specimenn . they all need to be lapped and theyre finish , the stone finish ,is essential ,for the finishing effect on the blade .
They work definetly , better for some steels . Usualy gives a very sharp edge but the feeling of them is different of the Thury edje , very good but diferent .
For me , they will fit perfectly in progretion after 6 or 8 K stone , used first with watter and presure , after at the finishing stage , with liquid soap or soap lather , or thin oil or WD 40 , and no presure . Definetly they give very fine edge.
Every stone is different ,so they need to be laped , on glass flatt surface with 1000 grit wett sandpaper ,and more finer even . for optimal finishing results .
This is my humble experience with this kind of stones .

Jasper is a very loose term that covers a broad range.

Impure microcrystalline quartz. Depending on how crystalline and how impure and impure with what can give you highly variable results.

Agree with the above. I have stuck with the suggestions that a professional engraver made to me. That is biggs or owyhee and try to buy a slab that is not very visually interesting. E.g., if you find a slab of owyhee jasper that's pretty much solid green with no cracks, it'll be good. If you find one with all kinds of mineral blooms all over it, it's probably not going to be as good.

I haven't strayed from biggs or owyhee for one simple reason, they're very fine, easy to find in a format suggested by the engravers, and they're cheap (the four slabs I've gotten have been between $0.99 and $16.

Well, there was one exception - I bought one piece of stone that turned out to be travertine and it slurried on its own. It had some silica in it and could cut, but it was worthless.

While the biggs and owyhee slabs have been excellent to play with, especially as burnishers, they do have a steep learning curve.

Yes the softer kinds , are intresting realy , because theyre faster and doesnt clugs so mutch .
But for finisher i prefer hard a hell and very fine .

RusenbBG, what do you use to lap your hard finishers?

Well the most eficient for me is SIC powder on a hard surface - glass or like i do - ceramic floor tail on the smooth side .
As the hone is flat i use a fine wet sandpapr to polish it on a glass . My opinion is that the final polish or the surface of the finisher is very important for the edge q because if there is a low gritt marks on the stone surface they will give negative influence on the finishing results .
If you have 2 flat jaspers , you can rubb them against them selves , and they will polish also .butt this is the slowest way