Making a hone

Looking good to me

Finished....break time!

Looking very promising!

"Well I took a few orange rocks, smelted them in my home-made furnace to make an ingot. Then beat the ingot into 1500 layers of folded steel with a rock. I had to chew the rough profile while it was still hot, but then I shaped, ground, polished, beveled and honed on these here pieces of the cliff. Two passes with Martin de Candre to a BBS."

Now that I have some daylight...here's a close-up of the hone surface...very fast....and very fine. Gives a nice non harsh shave.

Couple more pics

Beautiful pics. Congratulations on finding such an awesome stone.

I was going to wait a bit before I go rock hounding, but after seeing the pictures Dennis posted I couldn't wait. I went to a dry creek bed near my house. I found two different stones that looked like they could be used. They both appear to be the same thing. I don't have much experience honing or rock hounding, so they may be useless. Eventually I plan to go look for some slate in an area that had slate mines around the turn of the century.

I don't have a lapping plate yet; it will be here on Saturday. I cleaned one of the rocks with a wire brush and sanded a small area with 600 grit sandpaper. I tried to improvise the lapping with an old 60 grit belt on my belt sander. I made a little bit of progress. The first picture shows the progress I made. The lighter spot in the center is just a different color because it isn't even with the higher spots.

The second photo is an attempt to show the layering of the stone. It's actually one face even though the photo looks like to different faces. There is another layer change that is barely visible on the lighter part. Sorry for the poor photo quality.

The third photo shows the largest face of the stone. I didn't think to put a tape measure next to it for the picture. It's about 5" wide at the widest spot. There are a few spots around the perimeter where I started to sand it flat. I realized that it was harder than I originally thought, so I changed to a smaller face that was flatter. I didn't want to waste time if the stone was unuseable.



Hand sanding with 150 grit creates an off-white powder. On the smooth side I can get a milky white slurry by wet sanding with 600 grit. Its not a hard stone, but not as soft as soapstone that I've seen. I don't know much about geology other that what I have read on this thread. I will post more pictures once I track down a tile saw and/or do some more work on the stone.

Glad i'm rubbing off on other people

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.

I'm excited enough about the Dakota sandstone that I printed out the geological survey to use as a field guide. The Dakota group was deposited by a shallow inland tropical sea during the Cretaceous ~100 million years ago.

Plus, it would be a DNat ... kinda cool.

LBussy said:

Plus, it would be a DNat ... kinda cool.

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It's funny, I almost didn't bother bringing my first sample home because it seemed way too coarse, but after lapping it is unbelievable smooth and waxy feeling. I've been doing test shaves off of it the last couple of days with great results.

That's awesome. I have a new (old) Okudo tomae waiting for me at home. If you get to the point where you want a neophyte's impression on it compared to a JNat lemme know.

I remember when I lived in SLC I used to see those white veins folded into the rocks all the time. Had no idea they could be useful to someone but I do know they have them over on the Wasatch side too.

LBussy said:

That's awesome. I have a new (old) Okudo tomae waiting for me at home. If you get to the point where you want a neophyte's impression on it compared to a JNat lemme know.

I remember when I lived in SLC I used to see those white veins folded into the rocks all the time. Had no idea they could be useful to someone but I do know they have them over on the Wasatch side too.

Click to expand...

I may send you some sometime. I want to get a bunch more samples from different locations along the hogback. It should be easy as the hogback runs north-south and everyplace a road runs through it east-west there are exposed road cuts. The geological survey is organized by the stream and river cuts. It is a very well studied formation as the shale deposits between the sandstone are oil bearing and the formation is 10,000 feet underground a few miles east of the hogback.

I want to get together with a Jnat user some time as my sample behaves well with a slurry but not well with water only. I have zero experience with natural stones up to this point. Let me know if your headed West sometime, and I'll do the same if I'm headed East.

I will do so sir. Hopefully by then I will have figured out how not to ruin a blade.

Just finished this thread (for now). You guys are nuts and I love it. You'll be putting hone manufacturers out of business.

I've subscribed to this thread. It's brilliant. Great work and persistence. Rob

Robster said:

Just finished this thread (for now). You guys are nuts and I love it. You'll be putting hone manufacturers out of business.

I've subscribed to this thread. It's brilliant. Great work and persistence. Rob

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I doubt we will put anybody OUT of business. More likely we will put a few people INTO business! (Where do I collect my royalties?)

Phil

My HAD is enough to support one family at least....and I make my own hones on top of that...doubt that another manufacturer or 10 would even put a dent in the business lol