Thread: Quality Variation in Black Ark Stones

Originally Posted by DaveW

Nice - do you know what grade that block is, or are they not uniform? Someone who deals with norton told me that they waste enormous amount of stone in order to get clear stones. I'm not sure if I could find the old text that I read what I mentioned above, but that doesn't matter too much when you're showing a giant hunk of rock!

Did you see this...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...hetstones.html

And this

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...true-hard.html

Don't know about this grade of that particular chunk, but didn't see any wasted stone. In fact I just now remember Mary telling me not one bit goes to waste. They have non-honing, non-scientific applications for the "waste" by-product. I don't remember just what it was just now.

Originally Posted by Longhaultanker

Did you see this...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...hetstones.html

And this

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...true-hard.html

Don't know about this grade of that particular chunk, but didn't see any wasted stone. In fact I just now remember Mary telling me not one bit goes to waste. They have non-honing, non-scientific applications for the "waste" by-product. I don't remember just what it was just now.

Flint knapping and arrowheads, etc. You can buy their materials on their page by the pound, and some of them they have done some of the prep-work for already. It's pretty cheap, but none of the pieces are big enough to sneak a sharpening stone.

Originally Posted by Longhaultanker

Did you see this...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...hetstones.html

And this

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...true-hard.html

Don't know about this grade of that particular chunk, but didn't see any wasted stone. In fact I just now remember Mary telling me not one bit goes to waste. They have non-honing, non-scientific applications for the "waste" by-product. I don't remember just what it was just now.

No, I didn't see that. Thanks! I was down for the count for several months early this year due to a medication reaction, and still have cobwebs and confusion from it. It sucks! And I missed that!

In terms of the usability, I wonder if they have better stock for trans stones than pike did. I can't find the excerpt that I originally saw, but I remember finding it on google image. It was a picture about 125 years old or older of some guy pushing a cart or standing by one at the pike mine, and a boast about how good and uniform the stock was, and that there was no other in the world (which everyone said back then, but I think it was actually true for washitas in their case). At any rate, they talked of 2500 pound or greater uniform chunks that could just be cut into flawless stones.

Joel Moskowitz at TFWW relayed to me that Norton wastes huge amounts of stone when making a 2x8 (I asked him why the 8x3 is so cheap when the 2x8 is so expensive - because I wanted the 2x8 and I just don't feel like Norton's stock these days is worth the risk at $175-$200. It's decent, but not that decent).

But Dan's is clearly saying otherwise in terms of waste (or perhaps the stuff that they sell off in 50 pound lots is what Norton calls waste).
https://www.danswhetstone.com/flint-...raw-materials/

(if you really want to play billy big rigger, they will sell you raw stone in minimum lots of 500 pounds).

The german/swiss in me (well, that's 100% of it) really likes to see that they have a market for the spalls instead of just throwing them out, though I guess it's not the worst thing in the world if you take literal rock and put it back outside.