Thread: Home made Hone...

Hello,

There's some natural rock near where i live, It is abrasive I did some research, it's a type of sandstone with crystal(close to Garnets) embedded inside. I found a smooth side on a piece while i was out there and decently sharpened a knife i had with me. I don't know the grit but when it comes to natural rock grit is not really appropriate but i beleive it's a little below 1000k. I found some rectangular shaped pieces(kinda hone shape) but they are very rough and need flattened, not your regular lapping so i was looking for suggestions? It's flat but not at all smooth if you know what that means...

Hello Nathaniel
This may sound a bit radical, and I am surprising even myself here, but you might want to drag the stone behind your car. I have never done this before and it always sounds like a joke draging something behind a car. But what if you got yourself a good fresh wooden pallet as a skid and hooked it up to your car or truck on a nice quiet Sunday morning on the smoothest stretch of cement highway you could find. Get your friend to pull you behind and work the stone for a few minutes on the pavement as you go along. Maybe not hand held but with a jig of some sort. Anyhow I thought I would give you the honor of trying it out before me. Alx
P.S. don't forget the leather gloves, goggles and a crash helmet. alx

Before the advent of diamond plates a lot of sharpening stone lapping was done on cement blocks which are surprisingly have very flat surfaces. You have to have Popeye arms to do much though, but it will work.

Find a lapidary shop and check with them. They might have a diamond saw or some polishing -grinding units or know some rock hounds locally who do.

Sorry Nathaniel
My idea was pretty stupid. Alx

Originally Posted by alx

Sorry Nathaniel
My idea was pretty stupid. Alx

Nope, I'm all for it, sounds awesome can i go first?

Don't forget - 'without the photos it didn't happen'.....hehehehe

Must have been a dream

Originally Posted by alx

Hello Nathaniel
This may sound a bit radical, and I am surprising even myself here, but you might want to drag the stone behind your car. I have never done this before and it always sounds like a joke draging something behind a car. But what if you got yourself a good fresh wooden pallet as a skid and hooked it up to your car or truck on a nice quiet Sunday morning on the smoothest stretch of cement highway you could find. Get your friend to pull you behind and work the stone for a few minutes on the pavement as you go along. Maybe not hand held but with a jig of some sort. Anyhow I thought I would give you the honor of trying it out before me. Alx
P.S. don't forget the leather gloves, goggles and a crash helmet. alx

Before the advent of diamond plates a lot of sharpening stone lapping was done on cement blocks which are surprisingly have very flat surfaces. You have to have Popeye arms to do much though, but it will work.

In my old house, the wall above the basement sink was my starting point for flattening hones. This was before I had razor-worthy hones, and I'd flatten my coarsest on on the wall, then the next on on that, then the next on on the second one and on the first one, until I'd worked through them all. By flattening three surfaces against each other, you take care of the complimentary high and low spots you could get from flattening only two surfaces together.

But there's an easier way still--try a countertop place or tile place--they'll have saws and polishers.

I've got a piece of sandstone in my bathroom that I collected for the same reason; just haven't tried to flatten it yet. I live in western Colorado, and there are so many kinds of sediment and metamorphosis and original bedrock and erosion that somewhere there has GOT to be an outcrop of perfect honing material. There's probably a huge, as-yet-unfound nugget of gold lying on the ground out there somewhere, too, and an equal chance of my finding either thing.

Good luck with your chunk-o-stone, anyway.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Does this look more like intestines than a brain to anyone else?

I would start with a belt sander. It wouldn't be the flattest, but would remove the majority. It will also waste belts.