Finding a hone in nature

[Strox7889]

I know I’ve seen a similar post in the past but I’d love to hear others feedback still. Have any of you ever sourced your own natural stones while out on a hike, on a fishing trip or whatever?

I’ve been wanting to do it for a while, jnats are expensive lmao. A couple weeks ago I had a class to attend for work in a town to the south of me and the drive is through a canyon in the rocky mountains. I stumbled on a geological report for that stretch and found there’s a couple different fine to “exceedingly fine” hard quartzite based deposits throughout that stretch of interstate. Curiosity got the best of me, I pulled my truck over and went rock hunting. Lapping was a huge pain in my *** and i still don’t have it fully lapped. I started on loose SiC powder and it was dreadfully slow so I decided I’d try diamonds (hardest material, that doesn’t mean the bond is that hard) and got out my 2 month old Atoma 140, bad idea that plate is pretty much trash now.

This morning I took a gold dollar, lightly “killed” the edge on this stone and brought it back enough to pass a HHT. I haven’t shaved with it, maybe I’ll try it later tonight. The edge isn’t a mirror polish or anything but the scratch pattern is very fine and extremely uniform. Might not be the final finisher, maybe it will I’ll have to keep testing. Anyways I just think the idea is super cool and wanted to share my “success” and maybe hear stories you guys have

 

[Possum092]

Try using a portable or table mounted belt sander with a stone finishing belt to roughly get the surface flat before trying to hand lap next time. They also make discs for the table mounted disc sanders that really make fast working of roughing in a flat surface. Poor man’s way get a piece of flat granite countertop and some diamond abrasive mesh sheets. You can source a broken or sample sized piece of granite but usable piece from your local supplier…they might just give to you for free. The sheets cut relatively fast and you can apply water or rinse to keep them from clogging up.

 

[Strox7889]

I’ll have to look into those options! I did go out and buy a composite grinding wheel for my angle grinder to hog off large amounts of material so I can get rid of the extreme highs. Idk why I didn’t think about using the belt sander out in the shop lol I will say I have like 8 stones sitting next to me on the floor I want to flatten and play with so that’ll be the move

 

[Jakebullet]

I had a similar idea while out fishing in a river.
More than fish I found myself looking for stones.
I found a promising looking candidate in a palm sized piece of smooth black rock. When I got it home it split into three very flat layers, each of which took a quick light lapping to flatten.
The stones were thin and fragile and the honing areas were very small. Nonetheless I used a small piece as a slurry stone and got a beautiful inky black slurry. I honed on this for a while and to my great surprise got and absolutely brilliant shave.
Thinking it must be a fluke I did another razor, then another and again got really great results.
But the stones were unstable and gradually fell apart until
I was balancing a 1/2 mm thick 3x 1/2 inch wide piece on the tips of my fingers.
I researched as best I could to find out what the stone was. I think it was black shale.
Did I get super lucky or is usable stone pretty common?
Who knows but I got as good an edge from it as I’ve ever got from anything else.
I’m sure it’s possible to find a full progression from bevel setter to finisher with a little walking and a little luck.

 

[bluesman 7]

Honing slates.

Honing slates are an interesting thing. You can pay $1300 for an Escher or $1 for a piece of landscaping slate. What are the differences? How good are slates you find in your yard or random unidentified slates from a century old toolbox? Quite a few modern hone vendors have started hawking...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[thp001]

I’ve looked at geological surveys of the area I live in, a lot of the surrounding rock is Argillite, lithified mudstone basically. All different colors depending on the trace elements. I flattened a piece of purple to use as a hone, a little slow, but really gets the edge into fine, mirror like condition.

About 100 yards from our drive by the creek there is an outcropping of pure white quartzite that was mined back in the day, loads of loose slabs everywhere, should invest in a tile saw and diamond blade really.

 

[Legion]

There is a disused 19th century state quarry not too far from where I live, if you like a hike. I’ve sourced a couple of stones from there. I’ve found them quite capable of finishing a razor with oil, and @cotedupy says the sample I sent him might have potential as a knife polisher, so more testing to come.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

I know I’ve seen a similar post in the past but I’d love to hear others feedback still. Have any of you ever sourced your own natural stones while out on a hike, on a fishing trip or whatever?

I’ve been wanting to do it for a while, jnats are expensive lmao. A couple weeks ago I had a class to attend for work in a town to the south of me and the drive is through a canyon in the rocky mountains. I stumbled on a geological report for that stretch and found there’s a couple different fine to “exceedingly fine” hard quartzite based deposits throughout that stretch of interstate. Curiosity got the best of me, I pulled my truck over and went rock hunting. Lapping was a huge pain in my *** and i still don’t have it fully lapped. I started on loose SiC powder and it was dreadfully slow so I decided I’d try diamonds (hardest material, that doesn’t mean the bond is that hard) and got out my 2 month old Atoma 140, bad idea that plate is pretty much trash now.

This morning I took a gold dollar, lightly “killed” the edge on this stone and brought it back enough to pass a HHT. I haven’t shaved with it, maybe I’ll try it later tonight. The edge isn’t a mirror polish or anything but the scratch pattern is very fine and extremely uniform. Might not be the final finisher, maybe it will I’ll have to keep testing. Anyways I just think the idea is super cool and wanted to share my “success” and maybe hear stories you guys have

Was that off of hwy114 as there are a couple areas around there worth looking at. I did some research but never tried digfing around

 

[Strox7889]

I’ve looked at geological surveys of the area I live in, a lot of the surrounding rock is Argillite, lithified mudstone basically. All different colors depending on the trace elements. I flattened a piece of purple to use as a hone, a little slow, but really gets the edge into fine, mirror like condition.
About 100 yards from our drive by the creek there is an outcropping of pure white quartzite that was mined back in the day, loads of loose slabs everywhere, should invest in a tile saw and diamond blade really.

What a coincidence, the report says what I have is either argillite or siltite. It also says you can find some red variants as well but I’ve only seen the green with hints of red in the stone. I have a few light grey / white stones from the area that should be fairly pure quartzite.
You definitely should get yourself a little saw and try those out! Just get a diamond wheel for an angle grinder and go to town, that’s my plan lol

There is a disused 19th century state quarry not too far from where I live.

Those are gorgeous stones. I definitely want to research more, I’m sure there are plenty of old quarries around my state it’s a pain to locate info though. How did you find out about yours? Word of mouth or stumbling on it or?

Was that off of hwy114 as there are a couple areas around there worth looking at. I did some research but never tried diging around

I-15 in Montana. You drive through a canyon along the Missouri River with big rock faces lining the interstate

 

[thp001]

What a coincidence, the report says what I have is either argillite or siltite. It also says you can find some red variants as well but I’ve only seen the green with hints of red in the stone. I have a few light grey / white stones from the area that should be fairly pure quartzite.
You definitely should get yourself a little saw and try those out! Just get a diamond wheel for an angle grinder and go to town, that’s my plan lol

Those are gorgeous stones. I definitely want to research more, I’m sure there are plenty of old quarries around my state it’s a pain to locate info though. How did you find out about yours? Word of mouth or stumbling on it or?

I-15 in Montana. You drive through a canyon along the Missouri River with big rock faces lining the interstate

Here’s some of the different colored Argillite in my area, purple, brown/ochre, blue/green and gray. The upper left stone is a chunk of the quartzite I picked up. I’ll go down to the quarry on Monday and take some pics. There’s black and red Argillite also but not where I am. Argillite has a history as a whetstone with some of the native peoples afaik.

I am also in MT, west of Missoula.

 

[Legion]

Those are gorgeous stones. I definitely want to research more, I’m sure there are plenty of old quarries around my state it’s a pain to locate info though. How did you find out about yours? Word of mouth or stumbling on it or?

Where I live was the centre of the Australian gold rush in the 1800's, so I was looking at old maps, trying to work out some interesting spots to go fossicking. The quarry was marked on a map, so then I matched the location roughly on google maps and went looking for it.

 

[Strox7889]

Here’s some of the different colored Argillite in my area, purple, brown/ochre, blue/green and gray. The upper left stone is a chunk of the quartzite I picked up. I’ll go down to the quarry on Monday and take some pics. There’s black and red Argillite also but not where I am. Argillite has a history as a whetstone with some of the native peoples afaik.

I am also in MT, west of Missoula.

Well hello neighbor! Lol its always cool running into people so close on a random forum. What’s your preferred flattening method for those? I’m guessing they’re very very similar hardness to the one I have and it seems like the hardest rock on the planet lol

Where I live was the centre of the Australian gold rush in the 1800's, so I was looking at old maps, trying to work out some interesting spots to go fossicking. The quarry was marked on a map, so then I matched the location roughly on google maps and went looking for it.

That’s a really good idea. I’m sure my state has similar maps probably just need to do some digging. I know there’s been many many mines in the mountains just isn’t always easy finding where they are since they’ve been closed down so long. Unless I missed it, any idea what your stones are made of?

 

[bluesman 7]

Rhyolite?

Was that off of hwy114 as there are a couple areas around there worth looking at. I did some research but never tried digfing around

 

[Legion]

That’s a really good idea. I’m sure my state has similar maps probably just need to do some digging. I know there’s been many many mines in the mountains just isn’t always easy finding where they are since they’ve been closed down so long. Unless I missed it, any idea what your stones are made of?

They are slate of some sort, but I don't know much more that that. There is a wide variety of colours in the quarry veins, but I haven't experimented to see how differently they perform.

It's relatively soft slate, and slow cutting, so it lends itself to finishing a razor or polishing a knife. I don't think it would do much good putting an edge on a blunt knife, especially if it was hard steel.

 

[cotedupy]

I’ve looked at geological surveys of the area I live in, a lot of the surrounding rock is Argillite, lithified mudstone basically. All different colors depending on the trace elements. I flattened a piece of purple to use as a hone, a little slow, but really gets the edge into fine, mirror like condition.

View attachment 1437131

About 100 yards from our drive by the creek there is an outcropping of pure white quartzite that was mined back in the day, loads of loose slabs everywhere, should invest in a tile saw and diamond blade really.

Very nice! I'm by no means a geologist, but I suspect that Thuris (particularly softer ones) are as much Argillites as they are slates.

Do you know how the difference between shales and argillites is defined...?

 

[bluesman 7]

Do you know how the difference between shales and argillites is defined...?

From Wiki; The argillites grade into shale when the fissile layering typical of shale is developed.

 

[Strox7889]

Very nice! I'm by no means a geologist, but I suspect that Thuris (particularly softer ones) are as much Argillites as they are slates.

Do you know how the difference between shales and argillites is defined...?

from my understanding they aren’t much different. USGS states “Argillite - A compact rock derived either from mudstone or shale, that has undergone a somewhat higher degree of induration (hardening of rocks by heat or baking) than mudstone or shale but is less clearly laminated than shale and without its fissility (a property of some rocks to split easily into thin layers along closely spaced, roughly planar and approximately parallel surfaces), and lacks the cleavage distinctive of slate.

So basically it’s sits between Shale and Slate

Oh bluesman answered it already woops. Oh well I already typed it out lol

 

[SliceOfLife]

Who's gonna dig up that 400+ page thread about this for him?

 

[Strox7889]

Who's gonna dig up that 400+ page thread about this for him?

This one? Making a hone - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/making-a-hone.254715/

I’ve read it and I suppose I could of just posted there but the last reply was in 2019 and I know a lot of forums don’t like bumps on old posts. So I figured I could attempt to start a modern thread so newer members, myself included, can get involved and maybe learn something new

 

[SliceOfLife]

No worries, Yeah I think that's it.