Thread: Pulled the trigger on a Dan's primitive

I've been thinking of getting one of these since I first saw one posted. Finally called to find out what they had available for a true hard stone around 8x2. They had an 8x4 and a 7x3.75, so I went with the 8x4. Here's what they sent







Looks like it's mostly trans with a bit of black. It's around an inch thick and sits pretty well in the hand. I'm very pleased with it. I'll work on knocking the edges down and polishing the face up this weekend.

Congrats. I know Aaron is enjoying his.

What a rock! It is sized like folding an 8x11 sheet of abrasive paper in half -- one with perfect grit, flat, everlasting, and beautiful with the surface at just the right height. It's a serious razor hone smasher, and waterstone bout crusher. With a finger on your blade, you can apply a little moving pressure to make sure that even uneven blades are sharpened across the whole edge. Light mineral oil is a good lubricant for the cutting surface. It is odorless, has just the right viscosity to keep the swarf suspended, and makes it easy to see on this white surface. Some honing practice on this surface will give you a perfect edge, ready for polishing on a pasted strop.

If you buy another similar rock, you can rub the surfaces together, with silicon carbide grit between them, finishing two surfaces together, getting even flatter surfaces with great finish. Just sayin'.

Nice shape and size! You came up on a good one!

Nice score, JJ-So another convert to the primitive cult, eh?

It should be dead flat from Dan's. I posted in my own show and tell how I refined and burnished the surface of mine-it worked like a charm and saved my shoulder joints a lot of aggravation, but of course you will want to make that surface work for you in the way you see fit. After you sand that surface evenly to whatever grit you desire, it will just keep getting better the more you use it; best to start with all your heavy kitchen knives with your oil of choice and some Japanese-style back and forths with a bit of pressure-my knives are all shaving leg hair now lol! Then the fun with razors begins. Let us know how it hones, okay?

edit: Oh, and obviously you will want to radius and smooth those edges a bit, and round over those edge chips, but you know all that.

Originally Posted by Toroblanco

Nice shape and size! You came up on a good one!

I was a little worried about how the 4" width would be to hold, but the shape of the bottom fits in my hand nicely. I'm really looking forward to giving it a try.


SHD: I've liked the look of the primitive cut since I first saw them, each one unique.

It's dead flat according to my straight edge. Based on the combo stone I got from them a few months ago, it's what I expected.

My plan is to start on the edges and a bit of smoothing this weekend (if I can wait that long )

.
.
Oh, how I wish you had not posted this...HAD! ...

Some 60 grit PSA on a stick and a little 220 with a cork put a bevel around the edge. Now it's time to start polishing/burnishing.

Looking good, JJ-I'd love to see the darkened bathroom pic of that with a headlamp on high up against it to see just how translucent it really is. I may get Steve to find me a white trans primitive cut just because I think they're cool. I had a nice trans black convex hone that I really liked-why did I sell it?

Let us know how she hones!

I'll take that pic for you when it's ready for the blades. When it first arrived I could just barely see light through it, it was also light out so...

While I was sanding on the edges I noticed my index finger kept falling into a little chipped out notch on the back (left side of the stone in the first post). I took a dremmel stone to the sharper edges in that pocket and the long edges. It's quite comfortable in the hand now.