Thread: Not exactly a hone but maybe

So I was in the local craft store looking for something else and happened to slot this bag of what looks like sectioned black river rocks.

I've seen them uncut in landscape applications and wondered if any of them might be usable for honing (does this sound like a sickness to anyone else?)
None of them are very large but I have acquired a fondness for narrow stones lately.

Perhaps a small palm stone???... anyway the whole bag was $4.99 plus sales tax so I figured if it doesn't work out I'm not out much.
Anyone else ever try some harebrained idea like this?

Yes. You have lost it. Now go sit in the corner and think about the lunch money you wasted.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Yes. You have lost it. Now go sit in the corner and think about the lunch money you wasted.

And to think that I traded the family cow for the magic beans which I sold for the $5 that I bought these with.

I will say one thing though, I tried dressing this stone on some 320 aluminum oxide Emery cloth I have in a roll and it just polished the high spots. I took it to the belt grinder to speed up the process and it was a little quicker but it was getting hot and I was afraid it would fracture it so then I got out my Norton flattening stone which did almost nothing. It raised just the slightest amount of a medium gray slurry but that was it. Of course none of this is very easy with one hand. Whatever this is it is hard hard hard hard hard. It's branded by Hobby Lobby which is located in Oklahoma City so I wonder if this is some kind of black novoculite.
Edit: also the parts that did lap are smoother than glass.

Loose SiC grit or a diamond hone. I’ve cut up a lot of rocks to make hones. Not all of them have enough speed to call them hones. Sometimes the are still just rocks, hone shaped but truly just rocks.

Yeah I was just using the SIC on a piece of ceramic tile now. That seems to be more effective but it's still very slow going. I was thinking about the diamond hone but I was afraid I would ruin it. As smooth as this gets it may not be good for a hone but my curiosity got the better of me.
Hey, at least I didn't pull a piece of rock fascia off the side of a building or use one of the tiles out of my wife's slate coffee table like I've considered doing in the past.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Yeah I was just using the SIC on a piece of ceramic tile now. That seems to be more effective but it's still very slow going. I was thinking about the diamond hone but I was afraid I would ruin it. As smooth as this gets it may not be good for a hone but my curiosity got the better of me.
Hey, at least I didn't pull a piece of rock fascia off the side of a building or use one of the tiles out of my wife's slate coffee table like I've considered doing in the past.

Why pull it off? Just flatten the coffee table and then you don't have to pull a tile off. Like most stupid things I do, I recommend doing it while the wife is asleep/away.

Well, I decided to give it a go with the diamond hone and then back to the SIC and I got this one flat.

But wait a minute....I still can't hone anything with it with no right hand...DAMN! Guess I didn't think that through very thoroughly.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Well, I decided to give it a go with the diamond hone and then back to the SIC and I got this one flat.

But wait a minute....I still can't hone anything with it with no right hand...DAMN! Guess I didn't think that through very thoroughly.

That's why you are from Flor DUH! Just giving you shit!

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Well, I decided to give it a go with the diamond hone and then back to the SIC and I got this one flat.

But wait a minute....I still can't hone anything with it with no right hand...DAMN! Guess I didn't think that through very thoroughly.

Well, you could glue it to a suitable backing, lay it on some of that non-slip shelf liner stuff on a table or something, and bench hone with it. Just as an academic exercise sort of thing.

So a few nights ago I had this dream.....I was sitting at the kitchen counter honing razors on the quartz countertops and then the missus comes along a lops me across the side of my head with a cast iron pancake griddle and while I'm in the floor I think gee the ceramic floor tiles would make a great hone and the missus doesn't like that either and then I spy the dog's ceramic food dish and I think that would make a great hone. She doesn't like that idea and grabs her dish and runs off with it and then I think the stucco on the side of the house would make a great hone.

It's a good thing I woke up then. No telling where that was going to go.

Har har.