Thread: Hone-stone from South Africa!

The direction of the grain looks just fine.

Direction of grain LOOKS fine, but I'm curious as to if it has any effect on honing properties.
He had mentioned that using the rubbing stone had a negative impact, so Im curious as to the stone maybe having striped composition not just color. In which case the feel may be different with the grain vs against it.

any new info on these babies?

My o my, what a handsome new hone! I'll be following this thread closely. It was a wise decision to ask Jimmy and Sham to evaluate: both great guys, experienced honers, natural hone aficionados and not afraid to state their honest opinion. I almost hope for you Michael they are going to say this doesn't work very well as a hone, for if they say it does... - well, it's a good thing you're far away in South Africa ;-)

I want one a beautiful stone.
I will bart for hone stone ROZSUTEC.

Hi Guys,

Just an update on these hones - well sort of..
I've got them ready now and will send them off to our testers next week.

Meanwhile today I was honing up another razor (SS) again the razor was tugging at the hair and hardly cutting. I started with a good slurry and worked it with quite some pressure to get the cutting going and then after some time lightened the pressure and diluted the slurry to just water and just the weight of the razor... and well it's shaving now, is all I can say - I really am still amazed that I'm making blunt metal shave hair with a rough stone that I found, cut and lapped.. it really isn't getting old for me

- But anyways, here's the interesting part: I was polishing the edge with these light strokes and just water, you know just knocking in the hones before I send them off - when I figured I'd get creative and apply just a few drops of liquid soap to the water to give it some glide and prevent it from drying out etc.. well all was going well for about 3 strokes when some of the soap worked it's way up the tang and between my thumb and index finger before I knew it the razor completely slipped out of my hand and in a reflex to catch it my hand moved down below it..... let's just say the blade didn't so much slice my pinky as much as it just moved into the finger... I mean it just landed right on the finger and ploughed into the meat.

It's the deepest cut I've actually ever had in my life. Close to the bone of my little finger I'd say - not pleasant. It's the second time I've cut myself with a razor, and both times have been while using some soapy substance while honing.. so I'm kinda staying away from the soaps for now - but in those few strokes it really did give some nice feedback to the honing...so I'll have to come back to it, maybe give it a month to forget this experience..

I then cleaned the wound and poured on some Friars Balsam and bandaged it up, so it's all much better now.

It wasn't the best feeling to cut myself like that, but I couldn't help but smile to myself that my own hone had created such an edge

So that my little story, just wanted to share.

I'll write back then when the guys have received the hones and the testing begins.

Oh and of course just be very careful when honing always, it happens in a split second...

Cheers,
- Mike

Originally Posted by Jasper Kade

......
It's the deepest cut I've actually ever had in my life.
.....
I then cleaned the wound and poured on some Friars Balsam and bandaged it up, so it's all much better now.
......

It seems you now have a marketing name for these.

SA Blood-hones.

Edit:
And the logo could include images of a Redbone coonhound (Bloodhound).
The Redbone has a strong desire to please his master and is a good dog
by all accounts....

I like that name!

Tom, I like that name too. As well as I like the preliminary results of these hones. Great work Mike.

Great post and great stones!

I am a Geologist by trade and I can share the official name of that stone with you.

To my trained eye it looks like a phyllite schist. A phyllite shist is a fine grained rock characterized by a glossy sheen. It can also have a wavy texture.

Phyllite is the latin term for a "leaf-stone".

Be warned though, as we all know, these sharpening stones are all about grain size. I have seen phyllite schists with large (up to 1/8 of an inch) sized garnet grains impregnated throughout. You can see the larger ones, but the odd small one could be there on the surface somewhere. In fact it is common. Garnet is harder than steel. So, what I'm saying what looks like a fine grained stone(hone), may have coarse grained material throughout. But, you should be able to identify them with a hand lens.

Also, you could send me one and I could have a very close look at it to identify it better for you.