Thread: Dan's Whetstones: Here's your chance.

I have a few of them.

Went to Dan's about 7-8 years ago and purchased a truck load of them as well as a lapping machine, got as many "blemished" stones as I could, the ones that had small chips, fracturs, colorations, etc.
I still have all these left in my collection but gave the lapping machine to Jonathan Coe from Arkansas, some of you might have heard the name, he is the ones who sales the Dota Creek, Bethesda stones.

I spent half a day with Dan's son and met Dan as well, he gave me a complete tour of the operations and showed me how to use the lapping machine (it was one that came from a mine they had purchased which went out of business, I think they got the mine as well)

It was a fun experience, one I will never forget.

That looks a little faster than my lapping process!!!

What slurry powder is that guy using?

Originally Posted by Kees

What slurry powder is that guy using?

I am using Novulite that is from the lapping machines themselves, it pools up in a 5 gallon bucket and re-used over and over again, also from the saws.
I purchased two 5 gallon buckets of it when I got the lapping machine (From Dan), also filled up another 5 gallon bucket from what was in the sides of the machine. Even though the entire drive home from Arkansas to Oklahoma I had a trail of dust flying out of the machine I still had plenty left in the machine itself.

even though I got rid of the lapping machine, I still have two 5 gallon buckets full of this stuff.
towards the end of my run of that adventure, I figured out I could sift the grit into different JIS rattings with the below seives. I could go from 200 grit all the way to 1000 grit using the ones I have.
Techinically SIC would be faster, but also more expensive for a production operation, which is what Dan's does not use SIC powder, the lapping machines produce their own novoculite powder so they just re-use it.

I still have a couple of these smaller lapping machines, which are technically used for lapping groomer clipper blades, I picked up two of them from a guy in town who had a scissor/clipper/knife sharpening business many years ago, these machines are probably from the 70's or earlier. I got them for 20$ each. I retroffted one of them to use a 14" diamond disk and the other I use the same novoculite powder on.

I am pretty much out of the business now, since I am moving to Houston in an apartment, all this stuff is now in a mini storage for who knows how many years.

At one time I had a saw and could cut my own stone out of boulders of Novoculite, but that venture proved way to time consuming and I quickly gave up and sold the saw. The particular boulders of Translucent I have came from a different quary than Dan's in Arkansas. I forget which one as I got them from Jonathan Coe. Now those rocks are in my flower bed, or at least they are for now until I move to Houston, not sure what i will do with them, might leave them or put them into storage.

I bet the guys who make arrowheads would love to have it, but too expensive to ship, so most likely better as garden boulders.

Great look inside an American institution. Thanks for this.