Thread: Collecting slurry as honing powder

I have heard that some people collect the slurry from their finishing hones and some how dry this to use as a honing powder. I have heard of people adding this to paper and using it as an abrasive stropping medium. I would really like to try this but I am having some difficulty collecting this stuff.

I tried washing some slurry off onto a sheet of plastic and tried to evaporate the water out. But I just don't have the patients to do this. Also my wife doesn't like the look of a wet and dirty plastic sheet on the desk.

I tried in lapping a stone in a bucket of water and let the slurry settle to the bottom. Once this had settled over a couple of days I gently poured off some of the liquid only to find that it had darkened. The bucket of water left outside had been contaminated with the exhaust fume dust that covers everything here in Bangkok.

So does anyone know of a way to cleanly collect slurry for use as honing powder?

I'd love to hear how you go about it.

when you lap the stones smear the slurry on a piece of paper and let it dry, I am not aware of other ways to do it.

I also toyed with this idea for a little while, but in the end I figured it wasn't worth the time and effort, especially since many different grades of powder can be ordered online at reasonable prices.

Originally Posted by mainaman

when you lap the stones smear the slurry on a piece of paper and let it dry, I am not aware of other ways to do it.

This method should work. It shouldn't take that much time for the slurry to dry on the paper, plastic is different as it doesn't absord water like paper does. I never clean my natural hones when I use slurry and the slurry dries very quickly on my Thuri/Escher.

Originally Posted by ndw76

So does anyone know of a way to cleanly collect slurry for use as honing powder?

I'd love to hear how you go about it.

I use a scouring pad (one of those thin green ones for cleaning dishes) on my Naniwa 12k for rubbing the surface down after lapping/use.
Obviously, it doesn't create a slurry, but the fine powder it produces may be of interest to you.

You were on the right track with the bucket approach.

The key is to keep all things clean (bucket, lapping plate, clean water, non-cross contaminated slurry, etc).

I lapped a handful of my coticules at one time lapping them in a bucket of water. I let the bucket sit in my laundry tub for days afterward. The slurry settled nicely to the bottom. I was then able to carefully decant much (not all) of the water before the slurry started to swirl up into the clear water at which time I stopped. I think I then transferred into a smaller container and repeated the settling process then decanting. After doing this a few times it got to the point where there was very little water left. So little, that I simply let it evaporate and hand only slurry which I transferred to a small zip loc baggie and there it is.

Have I used it? Once or twice to add on top of a coticule to make a heavy slurry.

My big thing with most all of this stuff is the PROCESS. I enjoy experiencing the process often even more so than the end result. So it's not important to me if I don't use the slurry powder I collected regularly if ever again.

Chris L

Originally Posted by ChrisL

You were on the right track with the bucket approach.

The key is to keep all things clean (bucket, lapping plate, clean water, non-cross contaminated slurry, etc).

I lapped a handful of my coticules at one time lapping them in a bucket of water. I let the bucket sit in my laundry tub for days afterward. The slurry settled nicely to the bottom. I was then able to carefully decant much (not all) of the water before the slurry started to swirl up into the clear water at which time I stopped. I think I then transferred into a smaller container and repeated the settling process then decanting. After doing this a few times it got to the point where there was very little water left. So little, that I simply let it evaporate and hand only slurry which I transferred to a small zip loc baggie and there it is.

Have I used it? Once or twice to add on top of a coticule to make a heavy slurry.

My big thing with most all of this stuff is the PROCESS. I enjoy experiencing the process often even more so than the end result. So it's not important to me if I don't use the slurry powder I collected regularly if ever again.

Chris L

You can speed things up a bit near the end by pouring the slurry with reduced water through a paper coffee filter, then just let it air dry in there. I've got some "swaty" powder to experiment with via this method.

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the dust collected from the hone using the scouring pad and the dust collected from the slurry in the bucket?

I'm not being factitious...just curious.
I'm new to this.

In regards to using powder on a strop: I just took the stone with slurry and let it dry, then rubbed the stone-and-dried-powder on the strop.

A few applications and I had a webbed strop that worked pretty well. It doesn't take much abrasive media to charge a strop, after all.

Originally Posted by joke1176

In regards to using powder on a strop: I just took the stone with slurry and let it dry, then rubbed the stone-and-dried-powder on the strop.

A few applications and I had a webbed strop that worked pretty well. It doesn't take much abrasive media to charge a strop, after all.

For the last 8 weeks or so I've been letting the slurry on my Belgian Coticule dry; then I apply it to the linen side of my strop. Works really well. And it's kind of free

Totton