Thread: Does anyone recognize this hone?

So to resurrect this old thread, I got the urge to play with this thing again a while back and while I wouldn't say I have "mastered" it I have learned some tricks to using it successfully. I've been able to go from can't cut open a letter with it to finish with pretty pleasing results. (Actually I started this post a few weeks ago. Since then I have gotten spectacular results.)

As always I am still playing with it and learning it's boundaries and potential. So far what I have found is that there are some tricks to making it do the various tasks. First, to go from butter knife to passing the TNT and shaving arm hair the trick is to slurry the "low grit side."


I put that in quotes because it is lower than the other side but still not very low. The feedback is like the 4k-6k range but it cuts much faster with thick slurry. After thinning the slurry out with a spray bottle (water) it performs towards the higher end of that, maybe even 8k. I've slurried with a diamond plate but have recently been using a small soft ark on a block which you can just see in that pic.


After working up the mud>clear water progression and jointing a few times to get a clean bevel I do some no weight strokes to smooth and polish. I should also mention that I have been stropping on canvas between stages and doing some spine leading strokes at the end then stropping again before flipping the toe breaker over. By the way I am even more careful not to drop this one not so much because of fear of breaking it but for fear of breaking my foot or whatever else it falls on.

On the other side I tried slurry but I found I didn't need the intermediate stage. The first side is high enough grit range to cover the mid range. As with the first side I have been using water so far. On this side though, I have so far been using glycerin and diluting that out.


As I say I'm still playing with it but what has worked like a champ so far is doing 20 to 30 strokes then stropping on CrOx pasted strop then going back and doing 20-30 strokes etc. etc. diluting as I go. Even minus that step it gives great results but I honed a Shumate Tungsteel today up to finish with the hone-strop-hone-strop-hone (ending on the stone) method and it was actually too sharp. As before at the end I did a few spine leading, no weight strokes at the very end. I still don't really know what I want to know about this big ol' honkin' thing like age, maker, material, what mineral is in the finish side, grit ranges but I do know that it is, as I hoped, a start to finish one stone hone and it can take an edge to exceptional levels without going to another finisher. The next step to try it with oil. That is what it was soaked with when I got it. That should be interesting but water has been great so far.

Stay tuned for more news.