I've been playing around with some different materials on making my own hone/whetstone. The abrasive is a fine silica/quartz fine grade foundry sand. I'm quite pleased with the results so I thought I would share some pictures for you guys.
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I've been playing around with some different materials on making my own hone/whetstone. The abrasive is a fine silica/quartz fine grade foundry sand. I'm quite pleased with the results so I thought I would share some pictures for you guys.
how did ya do it??
what is the approx grit???
comeon... spill the beans...
I've thought about doing the same thing before except using high grade garnet sand.
Very interested to know how you did this.
Make something like this out of Crox, and you may have a very nice finishing stone.
That is a very cool looking hone. Making hones is a finicky process I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into it.
Charlie
Thanks guys. Yeah it really has been a learning experience and I'm definitely going to keep at it until I have the process down to a T.
can you expound a bit on the process???? there may be a few peeps here with helpful ideas...Quote:
Originally Posted by xMackx
xMackx
Do you fire these stones in a kiln. I can't imagine anything ceramic in nature staying together without being fired to fuse the molecules together. Water usually breaks down refractories if they have not been fired in a kiln.
Jerry
Yeah, I'm thinking Kiln myself...curious about it....Looks gritty, 1k or less maybe...Hmmmm?
Very cool looking....Like a big bar of soap....
It may look gritty in the pic because of the quartz sparkling, but it's really smooth. Put a nice shaving edge on my razor, and it is cured over a few days then cooked. I don't want to give away the process too much since it took a lot of research.
This is cool, it's always nice to see people striking out in new ventures. I take it you're looking to commercialize, since you're keeping the process secret--fair enough.
My question is, what prompted you to do this? What need or niche are you filling?
possibly a less expensive finishing stone option??
I would assume that, given the amount of work, the economy of scale involved, and the general facts of life, that producing these on any kind of meaningful basis wouldn't make them that cheap. I would very sincerely doubt that they could be cheaper than a PHIG, not if Mack values his time and effort anywhere near where he should.
I had no plans on selling my hones. Just wanted to see if I could make one that worked decently. I'm a serious do it yourself kind of guy. Finding information and doing a lot of research made me realize if someone else is serious about making their own hones they would do the same. I posted this for others who find it interesting and to maybe talk to other do it yourself kind of guys. Because the world seems full of "it can't be done" mentality. If anyone wants the recipe I will give you a list of basic ingredients. 70 percent Abrasive + 30 percent Adhesive+ a mold= a hone
Making hones doesn't require high tech, or anything. There are recipes that are about hundred years old - you can find them on google books for example.
As any other thing you can get as involved in it as you want.
Now, making a full line of hones like specialized companies like norton, shapton, naniwa, etc. make, and being able to successfully compete with them in terms in quality and cost is what is hard and does require high tech not to mention far more scientific and engineering knowledge than a typical DIY hobbyist possesses.
i personally would love to attempt something like this........
trying to make a "ultra fine" hone ~16-18k grit........... i would use it to hone the razors i have made for myself....
My inspirations exactly paco :)
What sort of finish does it give in terms if grit level? After which hone do you use it, and how many strokes does it take to polish?
Well, without the expensive equipment, the grit range within the same hone would probably be a random distribution of anything between 200 and 20000. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by paco664
Achieving a 16-18k range without low grit content is the hard part.
That is why a brick sized piece of chromium oxide for general purpose steel polishing costs 20$, whereas honing grade Chromium Oxide costs a dollar per gram or something like that.
This.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
This is why the 30K hones cost so much more than the 15/16K hones from the same series...it's really really hard to guarantee any kind of uniformity at that size, and at that size uniformity is really really important.
there in lies the quest.............
and as we all know its all about the quest.... *(which is why we hone our razors constantly trying to find that magic combo)......
Spaceage ceramic is manufactured by pressing alumina oxide at 15,000#PSI and scinted at 3,000F. Ceramic products can withstand temperatures of 3,000F, have a compression of 300,000#PSI and a hardness of 9.5
My dad gave me the idea of using his 10 ton jack and one of our old broken down dump trucks to apply the pressure. And I plan on making a forge for knife making in the near future. Might as well make a small kiln to use the same,