Really interesting video. If you do decide to revisit the topic I'd be hugely interested to see the process of roughing out a not-flat stone with hammer and chisel.
Subscription added!! Great video. With everything I learned, I can't wait to see how thrilled my mother will be when I show her that her new granite kitchen counter can be used to flatten all of my wavy sharpening stones. I bet I could sharpen all her knives to a mirror finish, of course, seeing how shiny the granite is. Thanks for the awsome video!! I look forward to enjoying many more!!
Finally someone that gets the idea. Now, any tips on finding this kind of rock? I live in a river delta on sandy soil, any chance I'll be able to find stuff like this? Btw I've been looking for this kind of video for VERY LONG and I'm glad I finally found it! So thank you for sharing your knowledge mate. Would LOVE to see a video where you use masonry technique to shape a stone into a sharpening stone! You rock mate.
one correction, you cannot flatten 2 stones with 3 stone method, but there are other "rustic" methods that may be used to perfectly flatten even a single stone. But you will need to make an extra tool - a pitch lap. Precission optical flat glass - they used to be made with pitch lap and they are flattened to 0.5 micron
You are The Amazing Sharperman! Cue Spiderman music. This is really great stuff in how to make tools from scratch, in the theme of rebuilding civilization or at least appreciating what we have. I've seen your hewing axe profile and chisel leather wrap videos. Super fun and educational. Cheers!
Thank you so much for this video sir! I did it today and harvested some natural. I’m gonna flattens them with my atoma #140. Can’t wait to see how it’s gonna turn 💁♂️
I'd be concerned about dulling my diamonds. They are super hard but they can still wear. Try doing at least the first bit with something like concrete paver or the like.
I love your detailed explanation of everything in this video. This is incredibly helpful, and exactly what I was looking for plus more! I live off grid on a mountain in the northeast and have a ton of quartz and slate around here. Excited to try this out!! Subscribing and looking for more content like this.
I love your videos and I have been thinking about when I would be able to do something like your videos. I live in New York and there are a ton of quarries with all types of rock around even in the 5 boroughs! Hopefully when I get healthy enough I will be able to shoot a video with everything involved! Thanks for showing us how you find and do your assessments on everything and Best regards
This video is amazing I've been looking for this type of information. And even better I live near Daylesford and was planning to go looking for some deposits of decant sharpening stones and now I know I might find some! 🙂
Iron stone (purple sandstone) is best so start, then tight fine grain sandstone, and then bassalt to finish, orthe back of a simple tile will do....best of the lot is ceaser stone off cuts.
ooh man, I wish I had rock like the soft sandstone you used 7:50 now that, is a stone that I can see much more usefulness in for rough grind work. it's pretty hard to find good soft rough stones. a small note, try and rate natural whetstones by performance rather than grit. ultimately it doesnt matter what the grit is, the only part that matters is performance. the best way to test a stone is to start with a smooth, clean, wet, surface and then see how long it takes for a slurry to build up. when you have the slurry started take your test piece and work in one direction only, until the piece is covered in consistent scratches, in one spot at least the slurry is the important part of a stone. good luck, its always cool to see people trying to figure out this mostly forgotten and overlooked mystery craft.
Concerning finding a soft course sand stone. I saw on your channel that you are from Germany. Maybe you can pick up a stone from/at the Pfälzer Wald. The whole region basically has nothing but sand stone (a bit similar to the Sächsische Schweiz). I have picked up a random red sand stone and it is very coarse as well as very soft. It is a bit too coarse for sharpening but works well for the purpose of creating a coarse slurry as shown in the video. I also picked up a yellow sand stone there. It appears to be finer and harder than the red one. I like the red one more.
It works only with soft stones like slate and the other you have there... sandstone maybe. Arkansas-like novaculite is what I want. Granite, marble,... How do they make graveyard stones? With diamond cutting blades, 3M lapping discs on agle grinders... That's the way. A ceramic tile is better than concrete btw. Actually a nice, flat ceramic tile is close to what they sell as ultra fine ceramic sharpening stones. Try lapping some ceramic/porcelain
actually I'm lapping a carborundum stone on a tile as we speak. Which is hard but the tile is harder. It's just labor-intensive beyond being funny. Still had to subscribe for more content like this mostly because of your hair 😀Also, I'm shaving with straight razors and I need a flat, fine and super fine stuff
v.v wish I could find something that can teach me what to look for in a stone that can be turned into a Whitestone. My local bedrock is Granite. So this kinda dont help but a great vid overall
"The pessimist finds the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist finds the opportunity in every difficulty."- Winston Churchill "One will rarely err if ordinary actions are attributed habit, extreme actions to vanity and mean actions to fear." -Nietzsche
No hardness and colour are pretty much unrelated. You can get very hard pale stones. I think hardness might be related to color in these slates. The deeper darker the blue the harder. But somewhere else it may be (is) the opposite.
You can do it with two! Just wind up with four flat surfaces instead. Flip one grind flip it again grind, now flip the other one and grind. So it goes 1:21:34:24:32:12:43:13:4.
where would you recommend someone who dosnt know his area to good to look for better quality of Natural stones selfmade? I have aldready bought many myself so i know what they feel and smell like but. i my local area I have no idea where to really search for better quality. I do live close to forest and I can track myself to rivers if needed
@Skelletor92 Look at a list of the staff for the nearest High School in your area and contact whoever teaches Geology (or basic earth science). They are literally the biggest “rock nerds” in the world and fairly certain they would be enthusiastic to show you where to go and what to look for.
Hmmm that's not a simple question to answer. Experience? I think that you quickly realise which stones are rubbish and then over time expand your knowledge as to what might be good. Many stones are too soft or too hard and you can recognise this pretty quickly. Similarly different inclusions will make a stone no good for sharpening. Ultimately you are not going to know until try. I might have to have a bit more of a think about this and maybe do a video on it.
Yeah I've been ding this for years. I've got a piece off very fine grained mud stone from my first trip out with vogus. It's a bit irregular though. Need a special hammer to work on it.
You can get them in credibly fine but they are hard to find. I've used the large one for one of my yanagiba sushi knives and it did a great job at restoring an edge.
A lot of slates do to a degree but no. One of the things that good about this deposit is it's consistency however some of it is no good. Some didn't have any strength between the layers so it just turned into flakes. Other slates around here are have a scattering of pyrite crystals. They will cut a groove in your steel.
@@ChestnutnagsToolsFromJapan Mattieb3152. Finally got around to doing another video and its time for me to give the stone away. You won. Get in touch with your address and I'll send it to you.
That is fantastic. Accomplished the ancient way with no modern tech. Great thanks for this content.
Glad you liked it.
Love making whetstones.... But we don't have much natural rock where I live so I'm learning to make synthetic ones through pottery.
Really interesting video. If you do decide to revisit the topic I'd be hugely interested to see the process of roughing out a not-flat stone with hammer and chisel.
Subscription added!! Great video. With everything I learned, I can't wait to see how thrilled my mother will be when I show her that her new granite kitchen counter can be used to flatten all of my wavy sharpening stones. I bet I could sharpen all her knives to a mirror finish, of course, seeing how shiny the granite is. Thanks for the awsome video!! I look forward to enjoying many more!!
Great Idea I will look at rocks in a different way now Thanks
Thank you, as a dm, player, and writer, this is a godsend.
Finally someone that gets the idea. Now, any tips on finding this kind of rock? I live in a river delta on sandy soil, any chance I'll be able to find stuff like this?
Btw I've been looking for this kind of video for VERY LONG and I'm glad I finally found it! So thank you for sharing your knowledge mate.
Would LOVE to see a video where you use masonry technique to shape a stone into a sharpening stone! You rock mate.
one correction, you cannot flatten 2 stones with 3 stone method, but there are other "rustic" methods that may be used to perfectly flatten even a single stone. But you will need to make an extra tool - a pitch lap. Precission optical flat glass - they used to be made with pitch lap and they are flattened to 0.5 micron
Ill have to study the geology around me to find a good fit. I’ll also have to make a few simple carbon steel knives to enjoy the stones with.
What the hell u toking ebou?
You are The Amazing Sharperman! Cue Spiderman music. This is really great stuff in how to make tools from scratch, in the theme of rebuilding civilization or at least appreciating what we have. I've seen your hewing axe profile and chisel leather wrap videos. Super fun and educational. Cheers!
Thanks Linda. Thing I really love about these skills is it helps me to realise just how hard our ancestors had to work.
Thank you so much for this video sir! I did it today and harvested some natural. I’m gonna flattens them with my atoma #140. Can’t wait to see how it’s gonna turn 💁♂️
I'd be concerned about dulling my diamonds. They are super hard but they can still wear. Try doing at least the first bit with something like concrete paver or the like.
The hair adds excitement and credibility to everything you say
I love your detailed explanation of everything in this video. This is incredibly helpful, and exactly what I was looking for plus more! I live off grid on a mountain in the northeast and have a ton of quartz and slate around here. Excited to try this out!! Subscribing and looking for more content like this.
I'd love a property like that. Sadly I'm stuck in town for the moment.
I love your videos and I have been thinking about when I would be able to do something like your videos. I live in New York and there are a ton of quarries with all types of rock around even in the 5 boroughs! Hopefully when I get healthy enough I will be able to shoot a video with everything involved! Thanks for showing us how you find and do your assessments on everything and Best regards
This video is amazing I've been looking for this type of information. And even better I live near Daylesford and was planning to go looking for some deposits of decant sharpening stones and now I know I might find some! 🙂
Awsome ,love this. Im trying to sharpen swords and kitchen knives in a survival situation
This is awesome. Thank you for this!
You're very welcome! I just like sharing the fun.
wonderful.
What an interesting way to estimate grit size with the polished pieces of metal !!!
I used a belt sander with various grits,then finer sandpaper by hand till smooth
you look like michael shanks, loved the video
Iron stone (purple sandstone) is best so start, then tight fine grain sandstone, and then bassalt to finish, orthe back of a simple tile will do....best of the lot is ceaser stone off cuts.
Thank you so much, very instructional and easy to follow
ooh man, I wish I had rock like the soft sandstone you used 7:50
now that, is a stone that I can see much more usefulness in for rough grind work.
it's pretty hard to find good soft rough stones.
a small note, try and rate natural whetstones by performance rather than grit.
ultimately it doesnt matter what the grit is, the only part that matters is performance.
the best way to test a stone is to start with a smooth, clean, wet, surface and then see how long it takes for a slurry to build up.
when you have the slurry started take your test piece and work in one direction only, until the piece is covered in consistent scratches, in one spot at least
the slurry is the important part of a stone.
good luck, its always cool to see people trying to figure out this mostly forgotten and overlooked mystery craft.
Concerning finding a soft course sand stone. I saw on your channel that you are from Germany. Maybe you can pick up a stone from/at the Pfälzer Wald. The whole region basically has nothing but sand stone (a bit similar to the Sächsische Schweiz). I have picked up a random red sand stone and it is very coarse as well as very soft. It is a bit too coarse for sharpening but works well for the purpose of creating a coarse slurry as shown in the video. I also picked up a yellow sand stone there. It appears to be finer and harder than the red one. I like the red one more.
@@Hoerlimax yo thats some great info.
thanks! I'll add it to my notes!
More please
It works only with soft stones like slate and the other you have there... sandstone maybe. Arkansas-like novaculite is what I want. Granite, marble,... How do they make graveyard stones? With diamond cutting blades, 3M lapping discs on agle grinders... That's the way. A ceramic tile is better than concrete btw. Actually a nice, flat ceramic tile is close to what they sell as ultra fine ceramic sharpening stones. Try lapping some ceramic/porcelain
actually I'm lapping a carborundum stone on a tile as we speak. Which is hard but the tile is harder. It's just labor-intensive beyond being funny. Still had to subscribe for more content like this mostly because of your hair 😀Also, I'm shaving with straight razors and I need a flat, fine and super fine stuff
@@trollmcclure1884 you can do it with granite even steel but it takes a long time.
Used to be the way they made metal mirrors.
this is the best video I ever seen thanks for sharing
Very nice. Lots of slate around me. I have been thinking in the same direction.
Where can I buy these polished metal disk 9:48?
nice my friend! thanks!]
v.v wish I could find something that can teach me what to look for in a stone that can be turned into a Whitestone. My local bedrock is Granite. So this kinda dont help but a great vid overall
very interesting! i oft see in your videos a workbench in the garden, is very nice.
It is nice but I'd love a shed again to keep it in.
You’d be unbelievably lucky to find any of these stones being any finer than mid grade. You won’t be getting razor sharp edges from these.
"The pessimist finds the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist finds the opportunity in every difficulty."- Winston Churchill
"One will rarely err if ordinary actions are attributed habit, extreme actions to vanity and mean actions to fear." -Nietzsche
how to recognize what type of natural to make beacause various types are available
using concrete like a whestone to sharpen the whestone to sharpern the blade
An idea of the different types of rock we would need would be great
Sedimentary are generally the best.
what a legend!
My granpa used to have a ancient wheel stone you could sit at can you make a diy wheel stone and video
I missed out on getting a 4' diameter one.
Very cool 😎
Wait, the three plate method for surface plates comes from sharpening stones???
Its a very ancient method. Was also used for brass mirrors. Hard to say what it was first used for.
Silicone carbide will make this much much quicker but great video!
So are the different colours in the stone an indicator of its hardness ? Ie: is that sandstone in the larger piece of slate ?
No hardness and colour are pretty much unrelated. You can get very hard pale stones. I think hardness might be related to color in these slates. The deeper darker the blue the harder. But somewhere else it may be (is) the opposite.
You can do it with two! Just wind up with four flat surfaces instead. Flip one grind flip it again grind, now flip the other one and grind. So it goes 1:2 1:3 4:2 4:3 2:1 2:4 3:1 3:4.
Which would make mounting them in a wooden support block a little easier.
How to make a NATURAL sharpening stone ?
I would have to find one already made !
It takes a while to make a fossil.
I should have started sooner !
With a water cutter it would be amazing :)
Not sure what you mean.
where would you recommend someone who dosnt know his area to good to look for better quality of Natural stones selfmade? I have aldready bought many myself so i know what they feel and smell like but. i my local area I have no idea where to really search for better quality. I do live close to forest and I can track myself to rivers if needed
Rivers, Road cuttings, Building sites or anywhere rock naturally or by the action of man comes to the surface.
@Skelletor92 Look at a list of the staff for the nearest High School in your area and contact whoever teaches Geology (or basic earth science). They are literally the biggest “rock nerds” in the world and fairly certain they would be enthusiastic to show you where to go and what to look for.
This is awesome. Could this be done with some kind of bricks? I could not find any stones like these where i live
You could but they probably wouldn't be that sharp. You could add an abrasive paste.
You can always buy a 3aud whetstone from DAISO and use it
Yes but...
1. Where is the fun in that.
2. It would be crap.
@@StuartChignell i meant use it for flattening your natural stones. Not as a whetstone itself.
I expressed myself very poorly
bro discovered the free rocks someone silence him
how do you know if a stone is a good candidate?
Hmmm that's not a simple question to answer. Experience?
I think that you quickly realise which stones are rubbish and then over time expand your knowledge as to what might be good.
Many stones are too soft or too hard and you can recognise this pretty quickly. Similarly different inclusions will make a stone no good for sharpening.
Ultimately you are not going to know until try.
I might have to have a bit more of a think about this and maybe do a video on it.
Fantastic video very informative. I was wondering if you still have Any stones you would like to part with?
Thanks Terrence. I do actually. What were you interested in them for? Knives? Chisels?
Sorry I took Soo long to respond, but I would use it for knives
I love this idea. I'll be searching the creek next to my house for some stones. What is the polished metal? also, how do you judge what grit it is?
The polished metal is just polished mild steel. To judge the grit size I compare scratch pattens on stones of known grit with stones of unknown grit.
Hi! Where did you get the metal squares for testing scratch patterns. I would love to use these for my own comparisons. Thanks!
Off ebay. There is a huge range of little polished squares and circles. Mirror like finish with a protective plastic coating you peel off.
Hey, interesting video! Do you mind letting me know what those little mirror plates you had were called? Thanks!
I got them off ebay. I think i did a search for polished metal and then refined it.
Do this for, a while. Equals hours/days
But what about the gold ! Lol . Given me something else to look out for 👍
Yeah I've been ding this for years. I've got a piece off very fine grained mud stone from my first trip out with vogus. It's a bit irregular though. Need a special hammer to work on it.
can i do the resurface using sand paper ?
You can but a diamond plate would be better. Keeping sandpaper flat even when glued to a glass plate or tile can be tricky.
nice vid, what kind of grits do these natural stones go up to? and are they suitable for sharpening kitchen knives?
You can get them in credibly fine but they are hard to find. I've used the large one for one of my yanagiba sushi knives and it did a great job at restoring an edge.
Really interesting vid. Does pretty much any slate work like this?
A lot of slates do to a degree but no. One of the things that good about this deposit is it's consistency however some of it is no good.
Some didn't have any strength between the layers so it just turned into flakes. Other slates around here are have a scattering of pyrite crystals. They will cut a groove in your steel.
@@ChestnutnagsToolsFromJapan Mattieb3152. Finally got around to doing another video and its time for me to give the stone away. You won. Get in touch with your address and I'll send it to you.
Hi Stuart good to see you are all looking well just wondering how long it took to rub these samples down regards Craig
Umm all up probably an hour. Would have taken a lot longer without the addition of the stand stone. That really sped things up.
Mind you they were pretty flat to start with. Which is why I'm going to do another video with some that require more rough work first.
That’s a lot quicker than I expected 👍
@@craigdiss843 These ones were unusually easy and like I said the coarse stone really sped things up. First time I've done that.
I would like to buy a hand made stone if you are sell them.
Where abouts are you Andy?
ive learned that softness = coarser grit
Softness and grit are not related. They could be in some deposits but not in others.
@@ChestnutnagsToolsFromJapan ahh
美しい
I'm late
Better late than never and I think I'm later in replying.