New old hone

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Proinsias

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Picked up a hone on the bay recently, £13 inc p&p, stuck a few pics on B&B and they seem to think it may be a translucent Arkansas or a beryl stone, I've never heard of a beryl hone before.
It's been a pain in the arse to lap, tried a sheet of 120 grit wet/dry and nothing much happened, to the hone at least, then went through two sheets of 80 grit paper and I can see a few spots around the edges where I'm getting somewhere. This could take some time - and a lot of wet/dry, I've not got a dmt yet but I get the feeling flattening this would do a fair bit of damage to as dmt. I've been using B&Q branded wet/dry and some cheap stuff from the local hardware shop, it's fine for my other hones but would I better shelling out for some fancy wet/dry?

Just wondering if anyone has any info/tips about this, I've heard grit quotes from 4000 to 15000 for translucent Arkansas stones, but I'm not even sure if it is one.

Can't be arsed resizing the pics:
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I reckon only a trained minerologist could tell if its beryl - it varies a lot in colour according to what tiny impurities it has in it, but I have only seen the green-tinted type. It's a very hard quartz material, hard to lap, as is translucent arkansas - my DMT never forgave me for trying to lap a translucent white arkansas.

If it is wildly out of true a very rough surface like alluded to already will do for starters, but you will have to expend some serious elbow grease getting it finely lapped. I'd go for a dead flat cast iron plate and lapidary grit, but it will take a long time.

Even when it is fine enough to use you will have to do a serious amount of laps on it - a hundred or more, but it will do a stellar job. Forget about grit comparisons - they don't hold true for any natural stone, much less so for arkansas stones - the very fine grains that do the work are heavier than the matrix they are suspended in, and the closer together they are the better the finish. As they are heavier, a closer grouping means a heavier stone, so they are measured in terms of specific gravity. Tables assigning grit ratings are usually on the ludicrously low side.

Regards,
Neil
 
Neil Miller said:
I'd go for a dead flat cast iron plate and lapidary grit, but it will take a long time.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean here, sorry. What is lapidary grit and where can I get a bit of dead flat cast iron? The only lapping I've done has been on wet/dry and either on a piece of marble or glass.
 
Usually..the vintage stones if it is one..require more work due to the quality of the stone to be lapped correctly
As apposed to a new hone and proven to be "easier" stones
B
 
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