Show your natural whetstones!

Bill3152 said:
Which could easily be done with a pasted strop or even clean leather.
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Absolutely true. :thumbsup:

My only point being, they can be used as such if it's handy to do so, but would still be limited in terms of their ability to significantly alter or shape an edge on a more wear-resistant steel. That can be used to advantage, in some situations.

Some stiff burrs on fairly hard, but still ductile steels like VG-10, ATS-34 (strongest burrs I've ever seen, at ~ HRC 60 or so) won't be easily removed on bare leather alone, which won't be dense enough or hard enough to bend or 'flip' the burr in pursuit of breaking it off. And a pasted strop is more likely to do some polishing or other finish alteration as well, assuming the paste's abrasive is intended to abrade the burrs away, as opposed to just breaking them off. For example, I've always liked a denim strop with white rouge for very aggressive, fast deburring of VG-10. But in doing so, it also polishes the steel very fast. Sometimes polishing is a goal too, in using that strop; but sometimes it's not, and something else to get the burrs cleaned up is preferable.
 
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One of a ton of examples of that siltstone of mine.

Dry:
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Wet:
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The stuff feels like velvet to the touch.
 
A cheap coarse diamond plate followed by a fine, soft aluminum oxide stone.
 
I think I'll take a trip up to Lake Erie and look around soon, glaciers deposited all kinds of stones there and there are many washed up on the shore. I live not too far from a quartz and sandstone quarry, there is a state park in the area maybe I'll be able to find something useful there as well.
 
I'd guess you will easily be able to find some useful stones. I found quite a few. There are several I use pretty frequently.
 
I use mine for my hatchets and machetes when camping. Is easy enough to improvise a strop from campfire ash on a flat board.

Naturals work great on carbon steel and low Rockwell, low carbide content stainless. All other steels will benefit from synthetics.
 
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Hi All,
I'm new to the site and need some help with ID of this sharpening stone. This thing is pretty hard, very fine, semi-translucent, and unique (in my opinion). I've been collecting natural stones for a few years now and haven't found one like it thus far. I have searched for hours online to find another that is at least similar and have had zero luck. I'd be more than grateful for helping me finally figure this out!
 
I was able to right click and view the pictures by opening them in a new tab. Almost looks like a jasper or something. I'd say definitely not an Ark. Where did it come from?
 
Picked it up with a lot of old "vintage " stones on ebay that included a couple of small thuri's, hindostan, and some kind of slate I don't recognize. The listing pics, it looked like a turkish oilstone but it turned out just to be old black funk that took some doing to clean with sandpaper before i took it to a diamond plate to flatten. As old as it looked, it had a pretty minor dish to it on one side. Lapping it created a fine whitish slurry. Putting a blade on it reminds me of hard arkansas but smoother and slower cutting.
I do know a guy who deals in Jasper who said it definitely wasn't that, but maybe a gemstone of some kind. Pics don't do it very much justice.
 
Here is some of my Arkansas stones:from top down, the Black Arkansas, Translucent and a 4"X 8" Washita. This size Washita is a joy to work an axe on. DM
ArkansasSt.jpg
 
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Drock0320 said:
Picked it up with a lot of old "vintage " stones on ebay that included a couple of small thuri's, hindostan, and some kind of slate I don't recognize. The listing pics, it looked like a turkish oilstone but it turned out just to be old black funk that took some doing to clean with sandpaper before i took it to a diamond plate to flatten. As old as it looked, it had a pretty minor dish to it on one side. Lapping it created a fine whitish slurry. Putting a blade on it reminds me of hard arkansas but smoother and slower cutting.
I do know a guy who deals in Jasper who said it definitely wasn't that, but maybe a gemstone of some kind. Pics don't do it very much justice.
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Any idea where it came from before you laid hands on it?
 
I would tend to agree that it's some sort of gemstone type of material by the look of it and the description.
 
Drock0320 said:
Picked it up with a lot of old "vintage " stones on ebay that included a couple of small thuri's, hindostan, and some kind of slate I don't recognize. The listing pics, it looked like a turkish oilstone but it turned out just to be old black funk that took some doing to clean with sandpaper before i took it to a diamond plate to flatten. As old as it looked, it had a pretty minor dish to it on one side. Lapping it created a fine whitish slurry. Putting a blade on it reminds me of hard arkansas but smoother and slower cutting.
I do know a guy who deals in Jasper who said it definitely wasn't that, but maybe a gemstone of some kind. Pics don't do it very much justice.
Click to expand...

The layered banding, translucence and glassy polish on that stone remind me of onyx, also considered a gemstone. Even that term, 'onyx', is broad & vague in terms of composition or color, but that's what comes to mind, looking at your pics of it. Nice-looking stone, whatever it is.
 
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Here's some more: left, a Belgium coticule with a slate backing and one I found
at a show. Which I suspect is a green slate. It has 4-5 red veins in it. I leveled it
in maybe 15-20 mins., rubbing it with the coarse side of my Norton JUM-3. DM
stones.jpg
 
After looking at numerous pages of photos of this type of stone, I believe you're right. Lots of persons made nice boxes for them.
Where were these quarried and from what type of mineral? Thanks, DM
 
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