Thread: Might this work?

I had this idea to try and make something similar to a barber hone at home. Why? Just to see if I could do it...

So here is what I was thinking:

I get some 2 part Epoxy clay and mix it with some kind of abrasive powder in the .5-1 micron range. Then pour it into a rectangular mold and let it cure. After it cures I'd lap it flat.I found epoxy clay that I could mix in the diamond, aluminum oxide, curium-whichever powder while it's in liquid form so it mixes the abrasive in evenly:

Blehm Plastics - The leader in epoxy clay technology

Has anything like this been tried before? Would it be worth trying? I think the biggest problem would be finding the right ratio of abrasive powder to mix with the clay in order to get it to be evenly abrasive.

Thoughts?

I honestly have no idea how it would turn out, but I do wish you the best of luck. I am very interested to see how this turns out and to see if it works. If it does work, you'd essentially be making a really fine hone. But I imagine it might prove difficult to properly distribute the grit/powder throughout the medium.

Whether or not this works, I admire your creativity and thinking outside the box.

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

I honestly have no idea how it would turn out, but I do wish you the best of luck. I am very interested to see how this turns out and to see if it works. If it does work, you'd essentially be making a really fine hone. But I imagine it might prove difficult to properly distribute the grit/powder throughout the medium.

Whether or not this works, I admire your creativity and thinking outside the box.

With all the people snapping up old barber hones I figured there would be at least some interest. I might very well try it when funds permit since it sounds interesting enough. I like Barber hones and it would be nice if they were brought back in some form.

The only thing left to do now is figure out the micron equivalent of various grit ranges. There is a butt load of numbers involved with that and I'm just barely finding suppliers that list there "mesh", "micron" and "grit" sizes.

I'll put this down on paper though in the mean time and see if I can give it a shot.

I'm in the very beginning stages of trying something similar but with different materials (a gypsum/resin mix). So far the results are only mildly successful but promising. Anyway, here's a link to a grit/mesh/micron chart I found and here's a link to a good supplier of aluminum oxide, cerium oxide, etc. I ordered some aluminum oxide from him late in the afternoon and it shipped the day after. Good luck!
EDIT
Oops, just noticed you're looking for something much smaller than the site I listed offers.....Mama's Minerals has some 1.5 micron cerium oxide, maybe that could work.

Originally Posted by clrobert60

I'm in the very beginning stages of trying something similar but with different materials (a gypsum/resin mix). So far the results are only mildly successful but promising. Anyway, here's a link to a grit/mesh/micron chart I found and here's a link to a good supplier of aluminum oxide, cerium oxide, etc. I ordered some aluminum oxide from him late in the afternoon and it shipped the day after. Good luck!

Thanks for the links.

I hope I don't have to put it on the back burner for too long before I can fund this experiment. It would be an amazing thing to bring back barber style hones.