The 'wait' that I'm referring to is the follow-up to Legion's trip to the slate/gold mine. He HAD to have found some new rocks.
Honing slates.
- Thread starter SliceOfLife
- Start date
Assuming he didn't fall in a hole.
I did bring back and lap a couple of samples, but I haven’t tried them yet. I’m thinking they might be a bit soft for honing, but you never know.
Nice colours though.
Nice! The black bits in the one on the left look like trouble. The purple one is trippy.
Thank you, I'm better now...
I don't have HAD in the classical sense. I have 'mystery stone' disorder. I'm finding the geology and variations in natural sharpening stones to be a bit fascinating.
Well... This is surprising....
I gave the new slate a try. First on a completely dull razor to try and gauge the speed of cutting. Not much metal was being removed, but it was defiantly putting a polish on the edge and spine. Ok, maybe it's a finishing stone?
So I took the bigger stone and one of my go to razors, which was already shave ready, to be fair, and gave it about forty or fifty light laps, rinsing the stone every four or five to remove any auto slurry, since the stones are pretty soft. I was fully expecting to mess up the edge to a point where I would have to rehone the razor from scratch, but after a strop it was acing the HHT no worries. And the shave was excellent. Not excellent for a razor honed on a rock I picked up off the ground, I mean properly one of the top percentile finishing stones I have tried excellent.
I'm intrigued. I can't wait for the stone to dry out so I can seal the bottom and sides so I can play with it some more.
I gave the new slate a try. First on a completely dull razor to try and gauge the speed of cutting. Not much metal was being removed, but it was defiantly putting a polish on the edge and spine. Ok, maybe it's a finishing stone?
So I took the bigger stone and one of my go to razors, which was already shave ready, to be fair, and gave it about forty or fifty light laps, rinsing the stone every four or five to remove any auto slurry, since the stones are pretty soft. I was fully expecting to mess up the edge to a point where I would have to rehone the razor from scratch, but after a strop it was acing the HHT no worries. And the shave was excellent. Not excellent for a razor honed on a rock I picked up off the ground, I mean properly one of the top percentile finishing stones I have tried excellent.
I'm intrigued. I can't wait for the stone to dry out so I can seal the bottom and sides so I can play with it some more.
I've actually only used mine ones for knives thus far, I'll have to try one with a razor later. It sounds seriously good!
Perhaps we can depreciate the absurd pricing of the Thuri market if everyone realises they can just wander around outside a bit and pick up a likely-looking bit of rock.
Slate can be magic, you have to find how it likes to be treated.
with the stone I’ve tried I’d say the reason why they have not been explored as a hone is because they are not tough enough to deal with tools or heavy knife pressure without damage or wear. But used with the light touch of a razor finisher it has definitely got potential. Anyway, more experiments are needed.
I'm right there with you. I don't REALLY have HAD(except maybe with crazy arks) but I LOVE to play the mystery hone game. It's like buying a scratch off but I'm holding something useful at the end of it all instead of state made garbage. Eh, could be worse.
I've had great luck with rocks I've found and lapped, it's not that excellent hones are a rare thing in nature, but to make extracting them an economically viable endeavor however....
Well despite @Legion ‘s successes with razor honing, I must say I didn’t fancy my own chances here:
But knock me down with a feather! This probably the best I’ve done yet. I don’t tend to try shaving with anything I haven’t got to a nice HHT 4, but have found some of those edges still weren’t great in use.
Not so here... this was gliding and silk-smooth. At least on a par with the very fine jnat I like otherwise.
But knock me down with a feather! This probably the best I’ve done yet. I don’t tend to try shaving with anything I haven’t got to a nice HHT 4, but have found some of those edges still weren’t great in use.
Not so here... this was gliding and silk-smooth. At least on a par with the very fine jnat I like otherwise.
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Oz-nat?
Nat-erydoo??
Nat-erydoo??
Now everyone will be searching for an elusive "Australian gold mine slate".
Hopefully not, or there might be some casualties. And if they do, hopefully it will not be in the warmer weather. That place was a snake dream home. Warm flat rock as far as the eye can see. I’m pretty relaxed and familiar with hard core Aussie fauna, but that spot is legit dangerous. A whole bunch of sun baking deadly snakes, pend in by narrow cliff walls. What could go wrong?
Fortune favors the brave, but if the footing doesn’t get you, the critters probably will. And your phone won’t work there.
Having said that, I’m always up for Indiana Jones adventures. We will tell my wife I am at the pub.
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The A-nat is sealed and ready for action.
Making stone tools is right up there with cooking meat over an open fire.
I've always been keen on trying to do some flint knapping, if I can find a source of flint.
I'll be making a trip to the vicinity of Flint Ridge State Park in Ohio some time between now and Halloween. I'm hoping to harvest a big hunk of chalcedony. I've never tried it before and I'm hoping to find a wild hone or two.
I don't know anything about knapping, but I can probably hook you up with some flint after my trip.
With regard to honing slates, I brought some local river slate home over the weekend and it is presently soaking in awesome to kill all the biological nasties.
I've played a bit with my pool table slate and it is interesting. It's not particularly pretty but it is fast enough and fine enough to warrant more attention.
Thanks for the offer, but posting flint internationally might be a bit expensive,
I'm sure we have flint around here somewhere, I just have to do more research.
The thing with slate, at least judging by the quarry I visited, there are so many layers in one spot, and presumably they all have different properties. The certainly look very different. It's not like a coticle mine, where you have a bunch of BBW with a white stripe running through it, so you know what to go after. I guess I just have to try a bunch of different layers until I norrow down what works best, then try to find more of it.
One thing though. I need to find a better way to cut it than a hacksaw by hand. That is getting old, fast. I might try a diamond disk on an angle grinder.
