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If that’s sandstone it very even matrix. I haven’t found any sandstone with a nice even matrix. That would be a nice find even if it is just a hone shaped rock, because it would give me hope to keep...

Finding good subjects with very consistent matrix is a big challenge. I hope to get back to making some hones. I love that there are several people all over looking and trying.

I cut that piece off with a grinder. Smoothed it as best I could with the grinder and then lapped it. I’m at work until April 20th, once I get home I have a wet saw and will do some more cutting,...

So pared to other rocks. Most slate and shale is so soft, it laps quite fast. I have not got a vibrating lap for lapidary/ hone making, so it’s all by hand. As nice of hones that some of the...

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Some quick picks of my latest find. I do hope I can get some more.

I have tried several shale and slates. They have all been mid range. I would really like to find a 1K ish level sharpening hone.

Even though we do not get the hard freeze here that you get, we have a pretty steady wet, freeze, thaw, cycle that goes fairly steady during the winter that produces very similar results. Shale and...

Nice one. It is quite pretty. I have been inactive with the rocks for some time. I’ve kind of ran out of personal need. I typically rock hunt while I deer hunt. This year is a skip on deer...

It’s true. You have to play around a bit with every sample. I have cut quite a few that simply turned out to be hone shaped rocks.
Did you hear the on about the young geologists that took...

The good thing is they really take material off fast. The bad thing is they really take material off fast. I have both success and failure. I kept thinking if I could mount the grinder above a...

On soft rock a wet belt sander is ideal. A belt sander woks and so does flap discs on grinders. On the harder rock however it is hand lapping on diamonds or SiC grit.

Hard hones take a considerable amount of time and effort to lap. Essentially I am not cutting hones for the same reason. I do intend to build an electric lapping table, which should take some...

Ah, I get it now. Many of them simply do not cut or do not cut fast enough. I have come up with some beauties for chisels. I have a hard time trying to find rock with a coarse and consistent...

I do live in a very isolated and rural area. I had found a nice vein that I was very happy with, but I am cut off from it by a large landslide now. The quest continues to find a new source that I...

It is possible that those inclusions could be quarts. Quartz is a crystal type structure and should be obvious under a loupe. Maybe you can lap past it. However I have never seen quartz as part of...

Excellent. With that type of hone you are likely to get better finish results by burning the hone. To over simplify the process, the surface is peaks and valleys and you want to round of the sharp...

MW76 brings up an interesting point, with very hard hones the characteristics change with the lapping and burnishing. The finer it is lapped and the better it is burnished, the finer it will finish....

There are some serious Arkie fans here. I suggest scroll through the hone of the day thread and PM a couple of them. I know some people really like sic powder on a hard surface for lapping really...

It is awesome when they work. Hand picked hones beat antique store finds! :-)

I was out in the back country this past weekend. The access to the area i used to get rocks for making hones has been cut off by a very large slide. It is likely I will be able to walk in there...

We have had no snow, even in the alpine areas for over three years. January is a great time for rockhounding and hunting for me. It's a little cool for rockhounding but it's better to hunt when the...

I'm not really trying to save it, it just keeps getting declined. January I hope to be out doing a bunch of rock hounding. I am going to make a trip to Colorado. My pay is really quite messed up...

Excellent. I have not been off the beaten path for far too long. I did not even hunt last winter. gasp.

I break mine down with a large gas saw and then break them down further with what was a 10" tile saw. If you build a vise to clamp pieces down they will have less lapping to do in the end. I hand...

On a recent vacation I just had to go hike Hone Creek. Maybe there was a translation error. There were no cool rocks at or around the creek. Perhaps in Spanish hone means something different.