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Making a hone

I finished surfing the other day and whilst relaxing watching the waves afterwards, looked around and nearly died. There was so much stone about that "looked" like natural hones that I got pretty excited. I don't know how to identify them but they look a bit like sandstone. Some much much finer though. I'll try and get a photo. The reality is also that I'm too new at this to even consider it right now but maybe a few years from now, assuming the stone is fine I know where I'll be able to get some rocks to start with.
 

mrlandpirate

Got lucky with dead badgers
checked out a utube vid sweet break look like its off that point? lucky you to have it near by. Saw some rocks but got distracted by the Sheila.:w00t:
 
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Here are some COnats (Colorado naturals) that I'm working with. On the left is a piece of slate found in an old railroad cut, not sure if it is natural to that location. On the right is a piece of sandstone from the Dakota group. The latter shows great promise as a finisher. The Dakota group is exposed for a couple of hundred miles along the front range, so there is plenty of exploring to do to find the best hones in this group.
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The slate on the left did a great job on a kitchen cleaver, though it seems to have some soft inclusions that erode faster than the surrounding stone. The sandstone on the right that I was so exited about has lost some of it's luster. I had touched up a junk straight and done a test shave which felt great. Then yesterday, I tried touching up another razor that's in my weekly rotation and severely set back the edge. I ended up re setting the bevel and finished on synthetics. When I look at the first razor I had done with it, I don't see any of the deep scratches that I got on my second attempt.
 
Yup, still trying to figure out what the heck it is. Doesn't fizz with vinegar so it's not limestone. Too hard to be sandstone I think, plus it's not absorbent at all hardly, sandstone is always pretty porous I believe. One fellow said maybe siltstone, but I'm not familiar with that at all, still need to look it up.
 
Haha, that Dino sure must have eaten a lot of wicked abrasive snacks! Would have had to be a big sucker too, not sure how many dinos dropped yellow bricks this size. :lol:
 
I found another Colorado stone that shows promise. I have taken to carrying a small cold chisel with me when hiking to test the cutting power of likely looking rocks. I just spit on a flat place and see how quickly the slurry darkens when rubbing with the chisel.
 
Oh yeah, don't bother trying travertine, it's waaaay too soft and not very abrasive. I tried some since it was mentioned here. Definitely not the same stuff as the stone I found. I think it may be quartzite.
 
At the start of lapping I did a little cut test on the first smooth place with a wood chisel, to see if it was worth continuing. You can see a little bit of darkened swarf.
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A little farther along in the lapping. This stone is much harder than my last one.
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EDIT; I had enough flat area to test with a razor. The scratch pattern was about the same as a fine carborundom, but it was a much slower cutter than that. So no need to lap anymore as it would not even be useful for knives. Back to the trails.
 
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Came home with 4 samples to try while driving into Wyo. for work. The most promising was a chunk of green slate at a road cut. I did not have much time for collecting so I just grabbed a piece about 5"x 5" x 8". When I got home, I tried to cleave off a hone size piece and most of the chunk broke into ice cube size pieces :mad3:. A couple pieces are big enough to lap and test assuming that they don't continue to break apart. I made a note of where I got this incase the sample still shows promise after lapping. Even if it falls apart I think I can go back and 'work the vein' to some better rock.
 
Came home with 4 samples to try while driving into Wyo. for work. The most promising was a chunk of green slate at a road cut. I did not have much time for collecting so I just grabbed a piece about 5"x 5" x 8". When I got home, I tried to cleave off a hone size piece and most of the chunk broke into ice cube size pieces :mad3:. A couple pieces are big enough to lap and test assuming that they don't continue to break apart. I made a note of where I got this incase the sample still shows promise after lapping. Even if it falls apart I think I can go back and 'work the vein' to some better rock.

Can you stabilize a larger piece by bonding to a piece of tile?
Phil
 
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