coticule dust

After picking up a natural combo that the previous owner disrespectfully dished out, I lapped it with course sandpaper dry. When the paper clogged I collected the powder that was cleaned from the paper and continued lapping until flat and true. This process produced a lovely pile of magic dust that I just cannot seem to throw away. Has anyone found a use for this bi-product like an ingredient in a paste, or mixed with a binder to produce a semi-synthetic hone, or to simply mix with water to make a slurry for use with a hone? Any info would be very helpful

Thanks, Slacker

Slurry is commonly used on coticules - it increases the cut speed of the hone quite nicely. You'll want to be sure, however, that you don't have any stray grits from the sandpaper in there.

In order to remove the sandpaper grit, mix the dust with water in a container and let it settle for one or two hours. The sandpaper grit should settle out fairly quickly. Then you can either pour out the remaining slurry suspension or draw it off with a turkey baster. In either case, use care not to draw off the residue at the bottom of the container.

The finest of coticule slurry takes well over a week to settle. You can adjust the settling time any way you want by keeping in mind that the larger the grit the faster it will settle. You can then use the recovered slurry by using an eyedropper (much neater than pouring) to put some of it on the hone.

I don't think it is worth to mess around to make that dust useful. Ron's method may work but again if you have a lot dust . How much dust do you have?
half of bucket?
Sorry this is just One person's opinion.

I personaly collect the dust of stones I lap if there is more than double shot amount of it. Thinking of experimenting with making my own polishing compound for hand polishing blades.

you can always bag it and sell it in small amounts at the closest corner :p

(may be a risky sport)

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Originally Posted by janivar123

you can always bag it and sell it in small amounts at the closest corner :p
(may be a risky sport)

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Well, people already smell and lick their hones. Why not snort them too?

Actually I described how he could deal with his dust. In general one should lap with running water so the "dust" should be dissolved in a slurry.

When I have any significant lapping to do, such as with a newly purchased natural hone, I do the lapping with a DMT plate under dripping water and over a plastic tub in the sink. This allows me to collect the slurry for use for honing later. Because of the DMT plate, I don't need to worry about any extraneous grit.

I am going to have to ask the same question as Sham did...

Why??? It takes all of 5 figure 8's on a hone and you have slurry...
plus you clean the hone at the same time...

To each their own, but I must be missing something on this one :shrug::shrug:

Yea it's not like when they cut precious gems and keep the dust and then reconstitute it. Also if the sandpaper you used was garnet paper the settling method may not work.

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Originally Posted by adrspach

I personaly collect the dust of stones I lap if there is more than double shot amount of it. Thinking of experimenting with making my own polishing compound for hand polishing blades.

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I have done the same thing with a coti and an old tube sock... it actually works pretty well, but it's too abrasive for a final polish on a razor.

Put your coticule dust in a medicine bottle and keep it.

If you ever are restoring a coticule that has a big hunk taken out of it, or has a void between the coticule and backing, you can use this coticule dust to mix with epoxy and fill in the hole, matching the natural coticule color. It's a tough match.

I wish I could credit the SRP member who originally gave me this advice, I believe it might have been ChrisL. I of course ignored this advice like a moron, and tried to color-match a hole in a coticule I was restoring using regular paint pigments mixed with clear epoxy. The result was a very solidly repaired coticule hole, but no color matching that I'd write home about.

As much effort as I put into restoring that little coticule, I wish I had gone the extra mile and used coticule dust. Maybe over the top, but I'm a freakin' freaky freak for coticules.

I've repaired cracks in Coticules with Melted Beeswax and Coti dust. You force the mixture into the crack and lapp flat....Rob Celis gave me this advice....

P.S. What I do is grate a slurry stone with a hand file creating powder quickly. You need a nice pile to do this correctly. If you have a cracked stone, sacrificing part of a slurry is a small price to pay...

Thanks,Utopian sounds simple enough

Ok I gotta say thanks for a legit reason... :)

I like the suggestion to save the dust for patching of cracks etc in Coticules.
Currently I have 2 that need a bit of work and if I had that dust I would be using it. Over time you will certainly find more Coti's and some will need work. Hang on to it.

Ron, that's a great tip.:)

This might seem over the top, but I know of one person that uses slurry collected from several different hones to make his own sand paper. Apparently you get a finer finish from the slurry and also its good for making glass hones. If I am not mistaken he uses the 3m nexcare tape and rubs the slurry of choice on it taping the glass with it for honing. He says he gets good results and also uses it to polish blades. I like the coticule repair tip though!

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Originally Posted by Utopian

In order to remove the sandpaper grit, mix the dust with water in a container and let it settle for one or two hours. The sandpaper grit should settle out fairly quickly. Then you can either pour out the remaining slurry suspension or draw it off with a turkey baster. In either case, use care not to draw off the residue at the bottom of the container.

The finest of coticule slurry takes well over a week to settle. You can adjust the settling time any way you want by keeping in mind that the larger the grit the faster it will settle. You can then use the recovered slurry by using an eyedropper (much neater than pouring) to put some of it on the hone.

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You can improve the separation between the fines and the garnets during settling by raising the pH of the water (to ~9-10) and by using a long (tall) settling column. Certain garnets also may be paramagnetic so you might try that before putting everything into suspension. But as someone mentioned above, you're kind of 'cooked' here if you're using garnet sandpaper unless there is some appreciable difference between the sandpaper and the coticle garnets.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Ok I gotta say thanks for a legit reason... :)

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come on Glen, it's magic dust.

They're expensive. When I lapped mine I wept over the wasted yellow blood! :cry:

I would like to thank everyone for your ideas and opinions. The actions I will take for now is to clean and store this product with the understanding that it is not valuable but can be useful. If I find other uses not covered here I will let ya know.

again thanks, Slacker

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Originally Posted by no1slacker

If I find other uses not covered here I will let ya know.

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Some antique Coticules were so dished, that I could not bear the thought to lap them for quite a while. Eventually I did. Their dust is nice as a sprinkling on rice: 'Coticule-furikake'. I had nearly a peanut butter jar full of it; what's left now would only fill an egg cup. :(

I had some very dished Eschers too. They don't taste nearly as nice (and the taste varies with colour: DB a bit more minerally and YG a bit more pungent) but do add a little zest to lapsang souchong tea.