Unusual sharpening stones

C

Cronnacht

Joined
Feb 12, 1999
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137
I was thinking that there have to be more kinds of stone out in the world that are capable of sharpening steel beyond coticule, novaculite, and various kinds of natural Japanese stone. Has anyone ever used a "non standard" stone to sharpen a blade?

Does anyone have any thoughts on what varieties of stone might be able to be used in this manner?

Thanks,
Jim
 
I've used a polished beach stone to sharpen with when I was out and about before. If it's a rounded profile you can use it much like a round ceramic rod. It's just harder to hold a consistent angle, so go slow.
 
For hundreds of years, people used round sandstone grindstones to sharpen axes, knives, chisels, etc. I have an 18"diameter, 3" thick one that my grandfather used. These were usually handcut round, with a 2" square hole in the center for the shaft.
Typical setup:
ay332.jpg
 
I have experimented with cheap knives on concrete curbs. Got a very rough finish and would not want to use it on an expensive knife; but it worked and may be useful for emergencies (or as a dirt cheap super coarse stone).
 
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Fire brick and some of the various cast tiles used in boilers (industrial ones) can make reasonable stones to sharpen with. Most are pretty fine, though.
 
An electrician used to use an electrical insulator ~ 6" long. It was basicly a "poorman's" ceramic rod.

I used a side walk curb to sharpen a VERY dull cleaver at a friend's house, don't worry, it was a POS one to start with so I didn't feel the least bit guilty sharpening it on the curb.

I've also seen people use a flat shale river rock to sharpen a knife.
 
I've tried river stones on cheapo knives. Some smooth river stones can work fairly well.
 
I saw TV's Les Stroud sharpen his survival knife (in the jungle) using sand applied to a wet tree branch...kind of like a 'strop' loaded with really coarse grit. :)
In a pinch, anything rough and hard seems to do...
 
I've used the unglazed portion of a plate, a granite countertop, a flate piece lime stone w/ a nice water slurry, the diamond tipped parts of a hard rock cutting disc and a few more I can't remember
 
flashlife said:
I saw TV's Les Stroud sharpen his survival knife (in the jungle) using sand applied to a wet tree branch...kind of like a 'strop' loaded with really coarse grit. :)
In a pinch, anything rough and hard seems to do...
Click to expand...

I think that was Bear not Les. When I first saw that I thought that if you added some clay to the stick, then put stone bits in, and baked the clay you would have a much better sharpening surface. I was going to try it out and see how it worked but I realised you probably wouldn't even need the stone bits if you had clay.
 
You can use the unfinished edge on the top of car windows as well. Also, rusty pipes work pretty ok for light touch-ups.
 
A heavy mix of diamond dust and slow set epoxy spread thin and worked into a copper plate bonded to a slab of walnut.

Made a pretty good hard strop.
 
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