Making Sharpening Stones

A

AntelopeProtectionAgency

Joined
Dec 16, 2024
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65
Hello I am new here but I have been reading blade forums for over a decade.

On a recent windy day I decided to chop up some stone slabs I have laying around in order to make a sharpening stone. I am very precise about my knife sharpening and particularly about my lapping of whetstones. One of my favorite sharpening techniques includes a very fine grained finishing stone lapped to 300 grit. It cuts and sets bevels very fast yet leaves a smooth polished edge that transitions well to the natural grit side. So I made one of these stones.

I cut a small slab out of a piece of a slightly greenish transluscent microcrystaline quartz formation. I harvested this here in Wyoming. The finished dimensions are 1/4" thick, 1 1/4" wide by 4" long. One side is lapped to 5,000 grit and the other wide side is lapped to 300 grit along with the 22 degree bevelled side and both ends. The 300 grit side cuts very fast. The finishing side is slightly finer grained than my collection of arkansas transluscent stones and will definitely wear finer than 5,000 grit with use.

Hopefully someone else finds this as intriguing as I do.
 
I appreciate your interest. Ive been lapping stones for many years due to all of the modern production arkansas stones coming with saw marks and a severe lack of propper lapping.

Its actually very easy. A flat smooth hard surface, old slab of stone counter, floor tile, or even a piece of glass. Some SiC powder of varying grits which is sold for stone lapping, made into a slurry with water. It actually laps stones very fast. It works for other things faster than sand paper and is very cheap.
 
AntelopeProtectionAgency said:
I appreciate your interest. Ive been lapping stones for many years due to all of the modern production arkansas stones coming with saw marks and a severe lack of propper lapping.

Its actually very easy. A flat smooth hard surface, old slab of stone counter, floor tile, or even a piece of glass. Some SiC powder of varying grits which is sold for stone lapping, made into a slurry with water. It actually laps stones very fast. It works for other things faster than sand paper and is very cheap.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I prize a big Black Arkansas stone I inherited from a great uncle (WW I era) who was a carpenter, along with some of his tools. It produces a superb finishing edge on high carbon steels.
 
That is a prized stone. Many people spend a lifetime looking for those. Unfortunately people who inherit them often damage them or throw them out not understanding their value. Best ive come up with so far is a reddish pigmented razor hone made by a factory that burned slightly after the first war.
 
Went out today and made a haul of a burlap sack filled with about 80 pounds of rocks. I got quite a few of the same type ive used for whetstones above. I have a handful of them the size of small dogs to make some bench stones. I found several pieces of jasperized wood, and two pieces of agate petrified wood. One of those was absoloutely stunning when cut open but not shaped well for stones. Another im making a small 2"x4" benchstone out of, and a small handstone from the top slab cut of it. I cut out a really nice benchstone that is 2"x6" and 1" thick. The back and one end have the natural rock crust. It is grey with blue and yellow splotches. Very transluscent. One of the pictures shows a 1/16" facing cut i made on it. As I was walking back to my car with the sack, I looked down at an ant hill and saw a nice double crystal of quartz the ants had unearthed.
 
If I lived somewhere that wasn't mostly volcanic! cool stuff, and a great way to keep an old art alive. It reminds me of a guy on the now defunct straightrazorplace forum who was just out on a walk and found a dry stone wall almost entirely made from Belgian blue limestone. Apparently the owner of the property had no idea that it was at all special, and didn't care much either way save for the fact that some random dude was now willing to pay by the block for chunks of an old stone wall.
 
AntelopeProtectionAgency said:
Went out today and made a haul of a burlap sack filled with about 80 pounds of rocks. I got quite a few of the same type ive used for whetstones above. I have a handful of them the size of small dogs to make some bench stones. I found several pieces of jasperized wood, and two pieces of agate petrified wood. One of those was absoloutely stunning when cut open but not shaped well for stones. Another im making a small 2"x4" benchstone out of, and a small handstone from the top slab cut of it. I cut out a really nice benchstone that is 2"x6" and 1" thick. The back and one end have the natural rock crust. It is grey with blue and yellow splotches. Very transluscent. One of the pictures shows a 1/16" facing cut i made on it. As I was walking back to my car with the sack, I looked down at an ant hill and saw a nice double crystal of quartz the ants had unearthed.
Click to expand...

Pretty neat......The stone is beautiful all by itself.......Some jewellers would go nuts for that pretty stuff😉...
Cool beans.........Nice work too...👌
 
I have this bench stone completely flattened and void of saw marks with 120 grit. The colors are beginning to pop. Im finding the medium gray coloration is actually a matrix of colors. I see a lot of green and yellow splotches, a couple bright red and some blue streaks.
https://imgur.com/a/z4qYHO8
 
Alberta Ed said:
Thanks! I prize a big Black Arkansas stone I inherited from a great uncle (WW I era) who was a carpenter, along with some of his tools. It produces a superb finishing edge on high carbon steels.
Click to expand...
Part of why these old stones are so much better is they are properly lapped. I recall the first black arkansas I paid a pretty penny for about 15 years ago. It came with the cutting surfaces full of saw marks, and no bevels on the edges. Ive seen quite a few epensive natural stones come to me for lapping that were sold this way. I just do not understand it. Similarly I have bought slabs of washita that were never finished correctly. Those didnt even cut until I lapped them. I firmly believe a lot of people spend money on natural stones, they arrive incorrectly prepared for use and they are discouraged when they do not cut or finish well. It is amazing how fast a natural stone will bevel a blade when it is lapped to 300 grit and flat.
 
I think most people don't realize just how important dressing your stones is, whatever they are, to their performance.
 
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