Thread: lap hone in geology lab?

Should work fine. 1000 grit lapping wouldn't hurt anything. I've used 325 to 1200 on barber hones. You can judge porosity (sorta') by how fast water soaks into the dry surface.

Just noticed the second part of your post Chris.

Actually I'm in Canada, but my field area is in the U.S. and my prof knows a fair bit about American geology. I'll look into it. Funny that you ask because I'm trying to find cheaper honing solutions and I've found a few novaculite stones online for pretty cheap. Good to know they are not suitable for straight razors.

It's easy to tell the coarser porous ones. If the barber hone has never been lapped before, the finer stones like the Swaty and the "Perfect" brand hone have a shiny surface. A lot of barber hones were coated with shaving lather as a honing lubricant so splashing water on the surface of those stones when you're inspecting them will often cause water to bead up. Coarse stones, even if shaving lather was used will soak water in.

POROUS ("Royal Brand" dual grit barber hone). Lot's of pockets for fine abrasive lapping grit to hide:


SMOOOOOOOOTH surface. No problems with your lapping grits. The finer the better:


I hope that helps.

Chris L

Wow that SWATY looks nice.

Too bad I'm almost done my degree; doing a project on the geology of whetstones would have been fun.

Barber hones are fun to play around with. Some, like the Swaty, get a shinier, more glossy surface after lapping (as will the Frictionite, Apart, etc...). Others, like the Dubl Duck combination, will get considerably duller without their "glaze". The change in gloss/shine isn't anything to worry about. e.g. Here's a pic of a Swaty that is about 85% lapped.

I also finish hone almost all my razors on a barber hone. Some of them work really nice.

I can tell you that just about every rock and mineral that exists in the world can be found in the U.S. The rub is that many of the more esoteric species are found in such small quantities they aren't economically feasible to mine. That doesn't mean you couldn't go to a location and get plenty of the stuff for yourself. The problem is doing the research to locate what you want. You would have to start out by know something about the morphology of the rock you want and how it relates to other surrounding rock.

Well it sounds like the novaculite is a chert, which is basically super-fine grained (microgranular) quartz. Some of the finer japanese stones sound like they are a mudstone. Mudstones can contain many mineral grains such as quartz particles and clays, but they have to be smaller than 62.5 microns. I guess for a whetstone the smaller and more uniform the grain size the better. You'd also want to find a mudstone that is not fissile or laminated (like shale)...it would have to be massive. I bet if you read formation descriptions on USGS maps it would give you areas to scout out.

P.S. I've seen a few barbers hones for cheap on ebay that are combination straight/safety hones. They seem to be smaller than the true straight hones (one I was looking at was 2.5"x2"). Would one of these be OK for refreshing a shave ready edge, or does the small size make it too impractical?

Cheers,

Xander

Originally Posted by xanderhal

...
P.S. I've seen a few barbers hones for cheap on ebay that are combination straight/safety hones. They seem to be smaller than the true straight hones (one I was looking at was 2.5"x2"). Would one of these be OK for refreshing a shave ready edge, or does the small size make it too impractical?
...

I have several of the DE hones (≈ 1 6/8" x 2 3/8") and the size seems a bit small for a razor. I would reserve mine for emergency straight razor use maybe. One of them is a fairly fine grit.

About the smallest hone size that I use consistently (and comfortably) is 7/8" wide x 4 3/8" long. Those are the DMT hones in my avatar. I am becoming quite fond of the tan W4EE 8,000 mesh. It works, for me, as well or better than the D8EE. It's much lighter and handier to pack around.

I would first lap the hone with a coarse grit until it is flat. Then move to finer grits in stages. I finish lapping with a 1000 or finer on my hones.

Just my $.02,

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I can tell you that just about every rock and mineral that exists in the world can be found in the U.S. The rub is that many of the more esoteric species are found in such small quantities they aren't economically feasible to mine. That doesn't mean you couldn't go to a location and get plenty of the stuff for yourself. The problem is doing the research to locate what you want. You would have to start out by know something about the morphology of the rock you want and how it relates to other surrounding rock.

Originally Posted by xanderhal

Well it sounds like the novaculite is a chert, which is basically super-fine grained (microgranular) quartz. Some of the finer japanese stones sound like they are a mudstone. Mudstones can contain many mineral grains such as quartz particles and clays, but they have to be smaller than 62.5 microns. I guess for a whetstone the smaller and more uniform the grain size the better. You'd also want to find a mudstone that is not fissile or laminated (like shale)...it would have to be massive. I bet if you read formation descriptions on USGS maps it would give you areas to scout out.

Xander

So......you guys are saying that it's possible that there may be a mudstone of superlative razor edge finishing caliber within the confines of the U.S.? One that would rival or surpass Belgian, German or Japanese waterstones? Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?

Chris L