Making a slate hone, good idea or not?

[rafezetter]

A recent post about ID'ing a found slate stone had me wondering, I have several pieces of slate offcuts and thought maybe making my own slate hone could be a good idea.... or not.

I have sections of slate from Brecon beacons (mostly green colour, unknown particle type), Brazilian slate offcuts from a worktop (grey blue very fine paticles) and others from a fireplace hearth of unknown origin (grey green, very fine).

The Brazilian slate was chosen for a worktop as it's 99% non porous, and very fine grain - does anyone think this might make a reasonably good hone in the absence of any at all?

If yes should I also make a smaller slurry stone from the same material?

 

[D_W]

Making a hone is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. I'm not familiar with the slates you mentioned, but if they are good, you'll know just from use.

There is a lot of stuff that is good without necessarily being great. If you can make something good, that's a success, especially if it is at little cost other than time.

 

[bugbear]

A recent post about ID'ing a found slate stone had me wondering, I have several pieces of slate offcuts and thought maybe making my own slate hone could be a good idea.... or not.

I have sections of slate from Brecon beacons (mostly green colour, unknown particle type), Brazilian slate offcuts from a worktop (grey blue very fine paticles) and others from a fireplace hearth of unknown origin (grey green, very fine).

The Brazilian slate was chosen for a worktop as it's 99% non porous, and very fine grain - does anyone think this might make a reasonably good hone in the absence of any at all?

If yes should I also make a smaller slurry stone from the same material?

You've got nothing to lose, except time, and it may be fun.

However, people have been trying out random (normally local) rocks for centuries, in the hope of find good sharpening stone. In practice, only a few rocks make good sharpening stones, which is why they were prized, and traded over long distances.

BugBear

 

[adrspach]

My advice is go for it. It is good fun. However before you put it on you precious steel use some old screwdriver/chisel or something less precious to you and go over whole area of the hone in perpendicular strokes to determine if you have any inclusions which could mes up your edge and where they are. To do this is not in hioning mode but flat across whole length/width.

 

[Rorschach]

I made one from an old slate pot stand, cut it to shape and lapped it flat. Works quite well as a fine finishing stone, but of course as others have mentioned it will be a bit luck of the draw. No harm in having fun though.

 

[rafezetter]

Thanks for the replies - I've decided to give it a try, nothing to lose as you say. Once I've done it however, as I've not used a hone or any other type of stone, how exactly do I determine the results?

I'm thinking to sharpen as normal with what I have and test on endgrain, then hone and try again.

Is there anything I should be looking for?

 

[essexalan]

From my very limited experience with natural stones I have found that they all need to be run in, that is they start off quite coarse when they have been freshly dressed and then settle down and get finer with use. I take it this is the abrasive particles in the stone getting blunter, somebody please correct me here. The lump of Brazilian slate you have has probably been treated with oil or wax so you will have to get this off and then I would just try it with water on an old chisel or any piece of hardened steel, avoid the alloy steels at the moment. What you are looking for is a sharper blade than you started with but when run in you would be looking for a more polished piece of steel than you started with. I don't know what your normal sharpening method is but you will find slate is slow cutting, slurries easily and would be best for establishing a fine micro bevel. Cutting the slate I am going to use a wet diamond disc tile cutter and flatten the stone on SiC grit on granite.

 

[rafezetter]

From my very limited experience with natural stones I have found that they all need to be run in, that is they start off quite coarse when they have been freshly dressed and then settle down and get finer with use. I take it this is the abrasive particles in the stone getting blunter, somebody please correct me here. The lump of Brazilian slate you have has probably been treated with oil or wax so you will have to get this off and then I would just try it with water on an old chisel or any piece of hardened steel, avoid the alloy steels at the moment. What you are looking for is a sharper blade than you started with but when run in you would be looking for a more polished piece of steel than you started with. I don't know what your normal sharpening method is but you will find slate is slow cutting, slurries easily and would be best for establishing a fine micro bevel. Cutting the slate I am going to use a wet diamond disc tile cutter and flatten the stone on SiC grit on granite.

The slate is actually totally raw unfinished as it came in a huge pallet still with the slurry on it from the shaping and a bottle of the finishing oil.

Honing the micro bevel is what I was going to use it for anyway as I now use a diamond plate to 1k then W&D to 3k, and I've been happy with the results I get from it, but with the recent spate of posts about natural stones I thought a possible chance to improve my cuts for free seemed a good idea.

 

[adrspach]

Just watch out with your diamond plate. Some slates can have hard inclusions which can easily damage your plate. I would not go higher than 400 grit on the plate. That is where is the most of the work finished anyway.

 

[essexalan]

I know the razor aficionados use diamond plates but I have found you will wear out one of these pretty quickly on natural stones and a good flat plate like an Atoma is expensive, OK for that final touch up and beveling the edges but I think I will stick to SiC powder on a piece of granite or float glass. Grit sizes #60, #120, #220 and #400 is what I use and you can get the granite as an offcut or from Tesco or Wilco, take a straight edge with you and get the flattest piece you can, no such problem with float glass.