What did you hone today? -Knife and tool edition

[Legion]

Today I got around to trying a few knives on a mystery blue green slate hone I found. This thing has had a few of us scratching our heads in the razor honing area. It really does not look much like any other hone that has come up.

Then I got to thinking. Could it be maybe, just maybe, the mythical Mudgee shearstone, as written about by @cotedupy in past threads?

A Brief History of Sharpening Stones in Australia

Or at least relatively brief considering we're going to be spanning a period of 65,000 years. Having been playing around with making whetstones from local slates a lot since I got here I've also been looking into the history of sharpening stones here. I am no particular expect on this - it's...

www.badgerandblade.com

I don't know if I will ever know for sure, unless an identified example turns up to compare, but it certainly fits all the descriptions I've read in the past.

With that in mind, the first knife I tried was made out of an old pair of shears, to see how it would do. On this, and the next couple of carbon kitchen knives I tried it was excellent. Quite fast for a slate, but the edge was sharp enough to shave hair and cut kitchen towel.

 

[David]

Neat knife. At the very edge it almost looks like layered steel.

 

[Legion]

Neat knife. At the very edge it almost looks like layered steel.

Yeah, it does have that san mai look. I don’t think it is, but not sure.

You see these done a fair bit by amateur knife makers in Australia. I literally just cut some shears in half, reground the edge, and made a handle. Not exactly master craftsman stuff, but handy skills for when the world collapses.

 

[Wid]

With the guidance of @cotedupy I managed to get a really nice edge on this new petty.

Raised a burr on both sides with the Chosera 1K then went to a coti with slurry to finish. Stropped on newspaper. It will shave arm hair and does a clean paper cut.

@Legion love that knife.

 

[cotedupy]

Trying out a new coti and Norton Hard today - the two in the middle. Top and bottom stones are for benchmarking.

Both slightly unusual; Coticule is way different than I was expecting, Ark is how I hoped it might be.

 

[David]

Gotta hate those slow Arkies!

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Aww, man. I love the idea of a knife forum, but now I need to follow yet another honing thread in the hopes of learning something.

 

[cotedupy]

I managed to get a massive scratch in the cladding of this knife recently (I think a bit of sand from the bottom of my bag got into the saya), so playing around with some bevel stuff today. This kind of Mazaki doesn't ever really get mega contrast , but nice enough I think.

From the top: Maruoyama Shiro Suita, La Lorraine, Coticule, W.TOS.

And after:

 

[David]

I managed to get a massive scratch in the cladding of this knife recently (I think a bit of sand from the bottom of my bag got into the saya), so playing around with some bevel stuff today. This kind of Mazaki doesn't ever really get mega contrast , but nice enough I think.

From the top: Maruoyama Shiro Suita, La Lorraine, Coticule, W.TOS.

View attachment 1520402


And after:

View attachment 1520403

Nice. I’ve been doing the same thing today with a big Gyuto but the thing is so wavy I’ve resorted to finger stones.

 

[cotedupy]

Nice. I’ve been doing the same thing today with a big Gyuto but the thing is so wavy I’ve resorted to finger stones.

Ah yeah very common, even on some pretty high end knives, especially KU versions. I can't remember exactly but that Maz probably had a low spot or two before I thinned it.

---

Just bought a couple of new little stones which someone on KKF was letting go for $60 a pop: Okudu Renge Suita & Narutaki Tomae, and he's including some uchi fingerstones and powder, so there's gonna be a lot of polishing in my future!

 

[cotedupy]

There's a reason why Maruoyama Suita are increasingly expensive and difficult to buy - this really is superb. As well as being an excellent kasumi stone the edges are a lovely combination of bite and finesse, even though it's not particularly quick (at least in comparison to some non-Japanese stones).

 

[David]

 

[cotedupy]

A little action a couple of days ago for the FR. I've said this before but...

While the Fiddich stone is hard and fine (it does not self slurry), what makes it special is the way it cuts on a raised slurry. Which makes it almost unique in its ability to sharpen and bevel polish a knife well and finish a razor.

 

[cotedupy]

Quick try out for a new Okudo Suita on a kiridashi yesterday. This is a hard stone but produces an extremely good, high polish finish with contrast, which my shoddy camera phone as ever fails to do justice to.

There is bucket loads of potential here.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Nothing fancy at all but I cut up several large boxes for the recycling bin with my Sencut Acumen so I honed it on a Norton stone and then stropped it on a leather strop covered with green compound.

 

[Legion]

I found a couple of OK kitchen knives in a thrift store today for a few bucks, but man, they were the bluntest knives I have ever felt. I dont even know HOW someone could get their knives so blunt. The edge felt like the spine.

Even after I broke out the big guns and put it on the coarse side of an India stone it took ages to raise a burr. After that it was plain sailing, went to the fine side, then finished it with an antique Turkey stone. Popping arm hair now.

 

[cotedupy]

Staying with some friends who it turns out have quite a nice (albeit extremely blunt) set Pallares Solsona. And whenever visiting anyone I pretty much always pack a Washita, because it’ll do anything and everything you throw at it.

 

[Legion]

Staying with some friends who it turns out have quite a nice (albeit extremely blunt) set Pallares Solsona. And whenever visiting anyone I pretty much always pack a Washita, because it’ll do anything and everything you throw at it.

View attachment 1531849

Is that the stone that came in at 2.14 sg? How does it finish?

 

[cotedupy]

Is that the stone that came in at 2.14 sg? How does it finish?

Yep it's that one. Fast stone as you'd expect, but finish is quite coarse and aggressive in Washita terms - I'd probably put it around 2k atm. Might nudge a bit a higher once it's settled in more.

 

[JPO]

A little action a couple of days ago for the FR. I've said this before but...

While the Fiddich stone is hard and fine (it does not self slurry), what makes it special is the way it cuts on a raised slurry. Which makes it almost unique in its ability to sharpen and bevel polish a knife well and finish a razor.

View attachment 1522821

View attachment 1522823

View attachment 1522822

Nice.
Have you tried to use a diamond generated slurry on a Les Lat coticule on the hybrid side? This type of stone cuts incredibly well when used this way, and it leaves a edge with bite and some polish. I am not sure if it is usable for razors this way though.