Thread: Imperfection in old Thuringian what to do?

Hello oh wise ones. I bought a little Thuri from a local antique fair. When I got it home and lapped it a bogey emerged in the stone. It looks evil under a microscope. It's about 2.5 cm from the end of the stone so I dont really want to cut it off. What would you do? Here is the hone and a close up of the alien. It seems to be crystalline in structure so probably rather hard. I think I may drill it out. A hole must be less of a problem than something hard and scratchy. BTW the other side would require 3mm to be removed to be useful, so rather not do that.

That's the downside with naturals!
I use a carbide tipped tool to remove "toxic" stuff, a carbide or diamond burr in the dremel usually works fine to.
I don't know what to fill it with if you want to do that, know some have used super glue or epoxi, as long it doesn't mess up the honing.

first try if that realy bother the edge and then if required scratch it out.

Originally Posted by adrspach

first try if that realy bother the edge and then if required scratch it out.

Yes, how could I forget that, test it first of course, sometimes stuff looks worse than it is.

Originally Posted by Lemur

That's the downside with naturals!
I use a carbide tipped tool to remove "toxic" stuff, a carbide or diamond burr in the dremel usually works fine to.
I don't know what to fill it with if you want to do that, know some have used super glue or epoxi, as long it doesn't mess up the honing.

Yep, either remove the inclusion, or
Use the other side...which is what I would do.

When you go to dig out the inclusion, you may find that it's deep...you never know until you start digging.

Are you sure it is as much as 3mm that have to be lapped away?
That is a lot!

Hi

i have a lot of vintage thuringians, and sometimes they have black and gray spots in the surface, but they are mostly not toxic! you should check that bevore you drill it out or lap the stone 3-6mm down

The inclusion is deep. It started off as a very small dot and it grew bigger with lapping. I tried lapping it out but it grew bigger and sees to be deep in the stone. Last night i lapped the other side. It took a lot off the stone as the one edge was heavily chamfered. It looked like it was the edge of the original rock section. Its done now and i have this great stone back, albeit a little lighter than before. The newly lapped side isnt parallel to the original side as i just went for the first flat plane across the stone. Its fine as i like to hold the stone anyway. The inclusion was toxic from what i can tell.

Thanks for all comments