Making a hone

[CrisAnderson27]

I purchased a rather large slab of Picture Agate, but have yet to get it lapped. I have had good results with other agates, so I felt justified in getting a pretty piece, since I could look for a lifetime and not find one that compares. Plus, it could very reasonably be displayed in the bathroom. Truly picture quality.

I recently picked up some Owyhee jasper (it's one of the picture jaspers also, similar to Biggs jasper). I also have Fortification agate, some Rainbow Fluorite, and of course the Apache Black Gila:

Of them all, the Fluorite is some amazing stuff!! The crystalline structure is much, much different from the others...and it does some really interesting things to the edge. The small piece you see in the picture above was $10 shipped lol. It's capable of taking a razor from HHT1 to HHT4 on its own, using my saved beard length hairs (when I first started shaving I used clippers on my 2" long beard and saved them lol) as a control. I will be shave testing the fluorite edge tonight using the customized Kikuboshi 24 and Gold Dollar 66 in the picture, both of which I dulled on glass and refinished on the Fluorite.

I'll let you all know how it goes .

 

[147_Grain]

Where do folks here source jasper and agate for lapping into hones?

 

[CrisAnderson27]

Where do folks here source jasper and agate for lapping into hones?

I google them under shopping.

 

[PapaFish]

eBay and rock shops.

 

[CrisAnderson27]

Well, the shave off the fluorite was excellent!! As good or possibly even better than my Gila. Now to find a bigger piece that has the same crystalline characteristics. This one has a very visible 'layered' appearance that's hard to describe. Sort of like the random pattern carbon fiber on this ring:

It's very crystalline in appearance, and super cool to look at. I'll have to see if I can capture it in a picture.

Anyhow though, I'm going to order another, larger piece of fluorite and see if I can duplicate the results.

 

[CrisAnderson27]

Caught a few pictures of the surface of the stone:

It looks almost rough...but it's actually ultra smooth. That 'textured' look is in the crystal structure, and does intersect the surface.

Here's a video showing it a little better:

 

[PapaFish]

I purchased a rather large slab of Picture Agate, but have yet to get it lapped. I have had good results with other agates, so I felt justified in getting a pretty piece, since I could look for a lifetime and not find one that compares. Plus, it could very reasonably be displayed in the bathroom. Truly picture quality.

Ah! I should have said Picture Jasper... Oh well...

 

[RusenBG]

I have a bigg piece of red Jasper and i have to snd it for cutting
I think it will be comparable to the black ark , isnt it .

 

[caleb31]

I have a bigg piece of red Jasper and i have to snd it for cutting
I think it will be comparable to the black ark , isnt it .

It is much slower in my personal experience. But it can give a finishing touch if prepared correctly.

 

[Gamma]

Jasper is a very wide-ranging term....

 

[PapaFish]

Jasper is a very wide-ranging term....

Yes it is. I have a piece of what was sold as Jasper. It is not on par with any of the other Jaspers I have. It won't polish up, and I suspect it's fracture would be more uneven than my other Jaspers.

 

[Gamma]

That Fluorite is a real pretty stone.

 

[bluesman 7]

This rock hounding resulted in me reading two books by John McPhee in less than a week, 'Basin and Range' and 'plain to range' (I think that is the title) He has a four book series on geology. Very enjoyable IMO. Nothing directly related to hones except that geologists drive poorly as they go through road cuts also.

 

[Robster]

May this thread never die. I love coming back here time to time to see what you lot are up to. Inspiring and interesting and I love it. Keep it up chaps.

 

[HunterBlades]

Flattened this stone and it is one of the finest grit naturals I have ever seen from my first testing. Feels like the 30k glass stone under the blade and leaves a beautiful finish. It might be blasphemy, but this thing might just blow my Thuri's and Jnats out of the water. Once I lap another MM or two off the surface will look really nice, I was getting tired and wanted to test it though.

Still need to test shave but edge seems very keen from HHT. Now to find some bigger samples! I have a couple other hones i'm testing that i'll post later.

 

[bluesman 7]

We've got two types of Colorado stones now that are proving to be good finishers. One of which is being marketed (not by me). Both are very hard and work best as oil stones IMO.

I'm going to concentrate on slates for a while and see if I can find any that are any good, as I much prefer water stones for razors.

 

[HunterBlades]

I went hunting for more of that material above but it is elusive!

 

[spoken36]

I hope you can find some big easy slabs. Looks like sedimentary layers that might cleave okay. That would be handy.

 

[Old Traf]

This is almost a necro post; however, I picked up a piece of Italian slate Wednesday. It was part of a broken case and there were only two individual pieces left. The tile guy cut a nominal 12X12 tile into 3 pieces. It cut like butter, so I was not overly surprised when I started lapping it and the first layer turned to mud. It's not flat yet so will keep trying it. If nothing else, I might be able to use the slurry for a medium grit. Besides, it only cost $1.53 (and I got my 10% military discount). I would like to see this thread stay open. I will look for some sources for jasper and fluorite. This part of Florida isn't a very good location to look for natural stones. We have a lot of sand.

 

[Mackis]

Reviving an old thread, i have been reading up on this, currently on page 19.... Man have you been experimenting. Got carried away and decided to do some experimenting myself. Whent down to a local stonedealer and found myself some slates. 2 norwegian and 1 brazilian slate. The norwegian slates was in smaller samples so they was easy to handle, lapped them down with my atoma plate and did some initial tests, they need more work. Will come back to them for more testing soon. I cut a peace of the bigger slab the Brazilian slate that is a silthslate that i think is the most promising. Lapped it down with the atomaplate 140 grit and then smothed it out with sandpaper up to 1200. I then lapped it with my synthetics kityama 3000, shapton pro 5000, 8000, 12000. I also gave it som lapping with a thuri.
I then gave it a go with my ZY 430+ razor (Refined shoulderless Gold Dollar) It tree topped the armhairs. The edge under microscope is straight, not jagged. The bevel is more of kasoumi finish, i haven't stropped it yet, will do a testshave and let you know. But it seems promising.
//Mackis