Thread: Did i ruin my barbers hone?

Wow do I feel ignorant and gobsmacked. The knowledge residing in this membership is stunning. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

You could also sieve your sample to find out. Clay is usually considered to be made up of particles of less than 0.002mm in size, so anything passing a sieve of this mesh would be clay. I suspect you would have to wet-sieve and constantly agitate the sieve, though. If you know nothing else in the mix is around this size, then I suppose that would be an easy way - but not as easy as the soil test.

Regards,
Neil

That would be like "the operation was a success but the patient died" .........

Neil, your wealth of knowledge amazes me. Much appreciated.

Originally Posted by jaswarb

Wow do I feel ignorant and gobsmacked. The knowledge residing in this membership is stunning. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah stick around is it truly unbelivable the vast knowledge and diversity of topics that you can learn from this place, just dont start any guns threads like i did.............................................

Hey Neil Thanks a bunch for you indepth response. What I was thinking of was more of a test just to see if there was any clay, of any type. The reason is that the "hot process hones" use a resin ( no clay) and the "cold process hones" use no resin. So I was thinking of a reagent type of test. One where if a drop of reagent was placed on a clay type hone it would turn blue/red/green.... whatever color.

I can't really think of any single chemical test that would do that Randy - silicaceous matter is present in all clays, but it is altered by the presence of other minerals like smectite, aluminium oxide, aluminium hydroxide, montmorilonite, illite and others - some even has a good deal of matter called muscovite - potassium aluminium silicate to you and me!

All I can think of is a destructive test - pulverising a hone and doing the simple soil test, providing you know what the other additives are. Presumably they are mentioned in the cook-books, so it shouldn't be much of a problem getting typical particle sizes for them. If all of them are under 0.002mm then you are good to go - the last man standing after 2 days or so will be clay. If the water is clear before the 2 day mark then assume no clay.

Obviously some sort of readily available filler was used along with the powdered abrasive. I was thinking along the lines of fullers earth, which is part of the montmorillonite/smectite group. Whatever it was, it must have had some influence on the colour of the finished product - an overabundance of dark clay would only lend itself to dark or muted colours, for instance.

I suppose you could have a spectrographic analysis of the minerals made, but this is a destructive test plus it will cost big bucks!

Regards,
Neil

Neil,



You squared up immediately WRT my barber hone. Superb service as always

Looking through my records, the hone was a 'Royal Hone', made by 'US Abrasive Products Inc' of '429 South Ashland Blvd, Chigaco, Ill'.

Have fun !

regards

Russ

Any updates Jim? Eventually, if the shellac is exposed to water for a fair bit of time, it will break down and become gummy or something other than hard and glazed. If you could manage to get the stone soaked through with really thin shellac, maybe that would even be to your advantage, as the surface would slowly give way, but it would dry before much of the other shellac could be affected.

Potassium Dichromate - very toxic and carcinogenic
Toluene - not carcinogenic (ref. Toluene (CASRN 108-88-3) | IRIS | US EPA)
Xylene - not enough evidence to prove either way in humans, but in animals probably not a carcinogen (Xylenes (CASRN 1330-20-7) | IRIS | US EPA)

Originally Posted by jamesm

Potassium Dichromate - very toxic and carcinogenic
Toluene - not carcinogenic (ref. Toluene (CASRN 108-88-3) | IRIS | US EPA)
Xylene - not enough evidence to prove either way in humans, but in animals probably not a carcinogen (Xylenes (CASRN 1330-20-7) | IRIS | US EPA)

We stopped using both toluene and xylene in the mid to late 1970s - I suppose there was some notional evidence that they were carcinogens at the time, or the UK govt. would not have recommended using something else.

However, as we all know, things change over time - what is considered as absolute in one decade is shown as false in another, and might well change again. The citation you give explains that the evaluation has no human exposure taken into account, and is based on animals, BTW. It actually says near the end:

" While no direct human evidence is available, there is recent evidence of carcinogenicity of toluene and xylene at high concentrations in experimental animals. "

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by DaveW

Any updates Jim? Eventually, if the shellac is exposed to water for a fair bit of time, it will break down and become gummy or something other than hard and glazed. If you could manage to get the stone soaked through with really thin shellac, maybe that would even be to your advantage, as the surface would slowly give way, but it would dry before much of the other shellac could be affected.

Well so far the shellac job looks just as it did a few months ago. It stabilized the hone and i am able to use it in the normal fashion. I am careful to wipe it down and let it air dry before putting in in the box. But ive used it a number of times on a straight and even with some chisels ,bearing down much harder than would be wise with a razor, and the hone is holding up well. I dont know if its repaired permanently, but its a lot more fixed than when i got it