Monday, February 10, 2014

The search continues.... native natural sharpening stones



A picture can reveal so much...

If you look to the top of this picture, you will see the bottom/sole of one of my kanna... the lighter patches are rub marks from planing. There should be just 3 bars, not multiple patches. Time for a tune up! I did the other 2 kanna a couple of days ago, but obviously forgot this guy. Add to list...



I am building a new pond for the waterstones. A heavy plastic bin with a teak platform. And, yes, I do use that many planes. I am ACTUALLY in the middle of making some windowsills and that is why there are all of these tools laying about and to have as MANY ongoing projects as possible seems to be my ideal.


Speaking of too many projects...The cold snap has broken and it's time to look for new rocks..... Sharpening stones, that is.



I tripped on this guy on the way to the compost bin. I noticed the lines of relatively perfect cleavage and thought.... Well, you know what I thought.




A couple of taps with the chisel and... Almost perfect! The is some interesting silica solute (I think) that had seeped into the fracture eons ago. Interesting....




As a fall back, I also grabbed this from the yard. We have any number of round stones in the yard, but this one had that..... rough, sandy, gritty feel to it. Abrasive! Most of the other round yard rocks are more smooth to the touch.




They don't always split as nicely as you might like...

One hour later.



I grabbed a few kanna blade from my "magic box" to test out these new prospects. All seem to be good quality with nice ren-tetsu wrought iron. FYI, I have NO idea what type of steel is used on these blades, so any results are, well.....


Wet



This stone reminds me of one of those really hard aoto that I have been been wanting. Could this be my lucky day? It was easy to work with the diamond wheel, but the hand grinding portion was tedious. 



The feel is a bit rubbery, like the blade is dragging slightly. Not scratchy at all, though. Also not much grinding OR polishing.



I raised a slight diamond slurry




The slurry color is basically unchanged after 15 seconds and the appearance of the bevel reflects that. This isn't working.




ODC nagura



Well, that settles it. Still no love. The ODC nagura will not magically transform EVERY rock into a super sharpening stone (SSS). I was looking forward to writing a post about how I can transform a brick into the world's greatest hone, using only the ODC, but......



Maybe the other rock will perform better..... Cont....





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Like all of us, I am figuring this out as I go, so when you see something that is incorrect or flat out wrong (and you will!), let me know. This is a learning process. Real people and names, please. Constructive comments and questions are very welcome, but hate speak/politics are not! Life (get one!) is too short.


Thanks, Jason