Thread: Finishing hone on a polished piece of marble?

I was sitting here reading on different forums and I had a probably stupid idea. I was thinking if it is possible to use a polished piece of marble or some other type of hard stone for a finishing touch or is it just to hard and will do nothing?

Vern/Gibbs is using a Polished piece of granite and different Nagura/Bouts to raise a slurry on it.. But he just started that experiment so there is no outcome yet...

My experience tells my that this might work to sharpen a razor but to polish/finish I would guess that the shave is going to be a bit harsh...
I have never tried it myself though...

Stefan/Mainaman has a nice vid on here of a Nagura progression on a Hard Japanese Finisher also but that is finished on a proved stone

There was some experimentation done on a Spyderco UF and added high grit pastes and sprays to provide a better finish but again that is done on a finisher...

Try it and see

Marble tends to be a little more homogenous than granite, but I suspect that neither of them will be able to create a fine finish. I'm just doubting that either of them is truly very smooth enough at the microscopic scale.

Originally Posted by PMH

I was sitting here reading on different forums and I had a probably stupid idea. I was thinking if it is possible to use a polished piece of marble or some other type of hard stone for a finishing touch or is it just to hard and will do nothing?

Marble is metamorphosed calcite and it's not really that hard in the scheme of things.

I agree, marble is soft in comparison to granite.

what about soapstone? too soft? i have a piece about the size of a barber hone, but much thicker. I suppose i could try it on an ebay buy i don't really care for.

Originally Posted by Noisykids

what about soapstone? too soft? i have a piece about the size of a barber hone, but much thicker. I suppose i could try it on an ebay buy i don't really care for.

It depends. Some soapstone is even softer than calcite,way way softer.

What if you where to use a very, very hard natural stone?
Where I live we have a lot of Porphyry which is one of the hardest stones in the world. Would that work as a finishing stone?

The marble idea comes up every once in awhile. Marble is actually very soft. It's metamorphosed limestone which is really soft. My suggestion is to play with the idea. The biggest problem will be keeping it flat so check flatness regularly. I use a machinist's straight edge to do this. Put the straightedge on its edge on the stone and shine a light behind it. If you see any light, flatten the stone.