Thread: Making a hone?

I know nothing about pottery and very little about the structure of artificial water stones so if this is a stupid question, educate me gently
I ran across this site while researching stones and this part caught my eye:
"Takenoko Polishing Stone is made from synthetic #8000 grit abrasive and natural clays. The use of natural clay gives a surface with outstanding polishing characteristics."
This leads me to believe it possible to make your own stone with clay and chromium oxide, aluminum oxide or the like. The question is: would the finished hone work, or is there some quality, process or ingredient that can't easily be duplicated?

Good thinking.
I have no idea if it would work, but I can't see why not.
I think that the substance use for bonding can't have any abrasive effect of it's own, unless it's finer than the actual abrasive. That could be the tricky part.
I'm curious about the outcome.

Bart.

I would think that the mix ratios would be very important along with the proper cure.

Pretty sure this is similar to how most of the old barber hones e.g. Swaty's are produced.
If you have any luck with it it would be nice to see your results!

John P.

I'm pretty sure there was another thread with someone trying to make a hone. I followed it for a little, but not long enough to see if there were any hone production results.

EDIT: Here it is http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ber-hones.html

Making a ceramic hone may seem easy but its not. As I recall the main company that manufactured most of the barber hones, the ones that Tilly was selling had a woman who had the formula in her head and when she either retired or passed on they couldn't duplicate it and she had never written it down and she was the only one who knew it.

What would be the advantages of making a hone as opposed to making a hard flat strop with the grit of your choice? I've heard of using MDF or glass, etc but never tried it.

What I heard was that the formulas were written down but the process was not. I think the formulas were being offered for sale at a price of $6K. Tilly said that there were barrels of shellac at the site.

The process described is pretty much the same process everyone uses to make artificial ceramic stones. Norton has huge ovens and they bake their stones in the same way potters fire pots. What I dislike about artificial ceramic stones is that they clog and they don't ever seem to get the full potential out of a blade. I get a lot of guys who start out on various artificial stones and end up on something like a coticule, thuringian, or shapton. Even a DMT 8000 will leave an edge that will be greatly advantaged by 10 laps on each side (lightly) of a coticule. I'm working on a DVD which will be out in September which will show the microphotographs of what I've just described.

Still, being the teacher/learner I am, and suspect you are, go ahead and buy one and play with it to see what you can learn. That's part of the fun of this hobby. Also try sharpening your kitchen knife on the edge of a red clay flower pot and see what you learn from that as that's an instructional exercise.