Jade as a sharpening stone?

[Nova316]

My dad has a ton of uncut pieces of jade laying around in the garage. Anyone know if I lap one if it can become a sharpening stone?
Anyone have any idea haha I do have a lot of it but I have no idea if it is even worth the time

Thanks

I'll try to get a decent side one and lap in

 

[kirk 988]

i think that this has been discussed on here before it will be interesting to see what answers you get

 

[Legion]

This has been discussed before, I think it was on this forum. I did a quick search but couldn't find the thread.

My feeling is that it would not work. In order to hone a rock must have particles of something harder than steel, suspended in a matrix that can be abraded away so more particles can be exposed. Jade is very hard on the MOS scale, but has a crystalline structure that would not really do the job. It might polish, or rather burnish the edge, but it wouldn't really remove steel to sharpen. It would kind of like be trying to hone on a piece of glass.

 

[Nova316]

Thanks for letting me know, its ultra hard/impossible to lap even on 200 grit sand paper + belt I haven't even done anything to it before. I tried searching it up but came out short. Thanks for the info so I don't waste my time lapping this thing and only end up with a shiny flat surface.

 

[kirk 988]

This has been discussed before, I think it was on this forum. I did a quick search but couldn't find the thread.

My feeling is that it would not work. In order to hone a rock must have particles of something harder than steel, suspended in a matrix that can be abraded away so more particles can be exposed. Jade is very hard on the MOS scale, but has a crystalline structure that would not really do the job. It might polish, or rather burnish the edge, but it wouldn't really remove steel to sharpen. It would kind of like be trying to hone on a piece of glass.

i wonder if it would have the results of stropping if you used it like a strop

 

[SliceOfLife]

I vaguely recall that there are two types of jade with quite different makeups. They are 6-7 on the mohs scale, with Jadeite being the harder (and vastly more costly). Both should cut razor steel, but particularly hard steels may cause trouble.

From what I've heard, whatever the case, it's very slow and not particularly well suited for the job.

 

[jred]

What if you didn't lap it to a mirror finish, but used a 325 DMT or something? As the crystals broke down from honing, it would get smoother, further polishing the blade edge.

You might need to lap it more often, and I imagine it'd probably wear thin sooner than a standard hone, but you say you have a bunch of basically free material...

 

[Legion]

What if you didn't lap it to a mirror finish, but used a 325 DMT or something? As the crystals broke down from honing, it would get smoother, further polishing the blade edge.

You might need to lap it more often, and I imagine it'd probably wear thin sooner than a standard hone, but you say you have a bunch of basically free material...

I'm assuming the OP's jade is nephrite. As he said, it would be very difficult to lap, and I'm betting it would pretty much mess up a DMT. Once it was flat, though, I can't imagine it ever needing to be lapped again. As said above, Nephrite jade is about 6.5 on the MOHS scale. To put that into perspective, quartz is about 7. And your granite counter top might be only 4 or 5. If you had jade ground into a super fine powder and mixed with a binding agent it might work as a hone (sort of like how a barber hone is made) but a solid lump of it is not going to do squat.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

You coule make some jade scales! Now that would be nice to see.

 

[cleanshaved]

You coule make some jade scales! Now that would be nice to see.

+1
NZ Jade is known as Pounamu (AKA Greenstone). The Maori used it to make tools a weapons and oraments due to it's high strength.
never heard of it being used as a hone. Making scales would be nice.
examples of Maori Necklace and weapon made of Greenstone (Jade)

 

[SliceOfLife]

That's a weapon? I thought it was a spoon for a giant.

 

[Seraphim]

Lap up that jade and you will have the bitchin-est base for lapping film ever!

 

[Nova316]

Thanks for the input!
I'll take a picture of it, but it is impossible to lap. Sand paper at 100 grit does nothing to it even with a belt sander. I will take a picture of it cause I have buckets full of it. I found the most flat piece and still am not able to do even break it down or flatten a portion of it
I can try scales but I have no idea how to break it down to a thin enough piece to use as scales or even how to break it apart

 

[Kentos]

How about silicon carbide grit on a glass plate?

 

[paco664]

Diamond blade on a tile saw or brick saw...

Then diamond abrasive on a flat surface...

 

[Nova316]

I do have a diamond blade on a tile saw. I'll give that a shot tonight and see where it ends up

Thanks!

 

[Gamma]

TCBlades had a Photo of a jade whetstone on their site a while back.
Im not saying it was a functional whetstone - just sayin' the pic was there.
There was a seller on eBay with Whetstones they claimed were Jade - but they looked like Beryl to me.

 

[paco664]

TCBlades had a Photo of a jade whetstone on their site a while back.
Im not saying it was a functional whetstone - just sayin' the pic was there.
There was a seller on eBay with Whetstones they claimed were Jade - but they looked like Beryl to me.

you know what they say..... one mans jade is another mans beryl....


*(i am sure they say that somewhere.... )

 

[Seraphim]

Roll out the beryl...we'll have a beryl of fun...