Thread: Any stone can hone?

Originally Posted by Theseus

Hope this helps.

HowStuffWorks "How can water cut through steel?"

Water is the premier shaper of this planet. It formed the Grand Canyon with a little uplift help.

Originally Posted by MattCastle

Would it go faster if you used hard water

What grit is your water?

Originally Posted by Caledonian

I think the water jet coming from the spine might tend to curl over, as it reaches the edge, and round it slightly. Maybe not a lot, but more than you want in a razor.

The thought of going out and capturing your own hone is fascinating, and would give a great sense of achievement if you can do it. But there are a number of obstacles.

Grains can be big or small, hard or soft, rounded or jagged, and just about loosely enough bonded to fall out before the top layer becomes seriously blunted. Japanese sword-polishers are possibly the ultimate aficianadoes of stones in great variety, and sometimes of grest price. They don't regard a stone without provenance as being of much use. I think their case is more complex that that of the all-hardened razor, because if I understand it right, the grains must be just hard enough to cut the hard hamon more than the softer areas.

Still, it takes a long, long time to form sedimentary or metamorphic rocks, and who is to day whether there are times when conditions contribute larger, harder grains? Conversely, you need a rock which is hard enough to keep its flat surface through much use. The working surface needs to be very flat, and stay that way. It would be very handy if you know someone with a microscope. It doesn't need to be a petrological one, the principle difference being the use of polarised light.

If you do find a rock which looks good, a lapidary could diamond-saw and lap a flat surface on a slice. I doubt if they could do it as big as you would like. I once had some granite slabs cut and polished for a fireplace in Scotland, and they used extremely large and powerful wet-polishing equipment, which nevertheless left it hot enough to fry an egg. Taking them your piece of more homogeneous rock might be the way to go.

I'm all into rockhounding but I'm not brave enough to take one of my slabs and try honing with it. A stone for honing would need to be clean and without inclusions. Unless a stone is clear it's usually hard to tell where a tiny crystal of something scratchy is hiding. Around here we have several minerals that sometimes harbor little bits of corundum. I hate to think of what that would do to a razor.

Lori

Greetings to all from the autumnal Santiago de Chile.

First of all I want to thank all who so kindly expressed opinions about my rock doubt.

I've finally finished polishing a stone face. It was hard work.
Much sandpaper on a glass and a long time.
Despite the existence of inclusions of different aspect I was surprised to achieve a very smooth finish. The feeling on touch and see is like a ceramic.



Once again I used an old kitchen knife and some slurry and I got an excellent edge.
I was afraid to feel rough places in honing but that did not happen.



The next step was to be brave and use a razor.
I had two options, a beautiful Swedish Jernbolaget which I haven’t sharp yet or an old Kamisori.



I'm not so brave and I preferred Kamisori.
This had a unpleasant edge for shaving.
Also I thought that being harder the steel could be less dangerous the stone.
This time I used water only and I think somewhat improved edge. I believe I should use a Naniwa 12000 and leather for greater smoothness.



I think I've had enough fun with my stone.
While I think it isn’t the finest, I found her appearance beautiful and I like her.

Please excuse the length of this note and errors in language.

Have a nice day.

You are a brave man.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Really just about anything can be a hone when you really think about it. The question is are there better choices? You know if you put your razor under running water long enough you'll have the sharpest razor in the world. The kicker is the wait.

The question is though do you have to tape the spine?

Just looking at the finished surface it looks like Porphyry which is an igneous rock. Probably not a good hone for straights.