Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Meganbeyer wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 12:34 pm Hello, my name is Ulfr, and I am a rock addict...

Greetings Ulfr, you sit among friends

Ok on a serious note, the jade whetstone sent me down a rabbit hole. After some research and digging on our farm.... I grabbed a chunk of sandstone, ran it through the stone saw, and tried it... I took my old barn hatchet to try and sharpen. It put a nice edge on it quickly. Not a finished edge, but a working edge.

Will be saving to get a nice jasper or jade whetstone, but for now I will play with what I have.

You've got a Stone Saw!......You were born to be one of us.

Meganbeyer wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 12:34 pm Hello, my name is Ulfr, and I am a rock addict...


Ok on a serious note, the jade whetstone sent me down a rabbit hole. After some research and digging on our farm.... I grabbed a chunk of sandstone, ran it through the stone saw, and tried it... I took my old barn hatchet to try and sharpen. It put a nice edge on it quickly. Not a finished edge, but a working edge.

Will be saving to get a nice jasper or jade whetstone, but for now I will play with what I have.

OOOOOOH… this has me thinking… what are the chances you could maybe rough something out in a slightly long, oval shape? Y’know, kinda like…

The urethane whetstone they made for Vigo is one of the things that attracted me to the jade stone in the first place. A historically based portable honing stone.
Though truthfully, you could go with a pleasantly smooth river rock if you're in the right area.

Manveruon wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 8:15 pm
OOOOOOH… this has me thinking… what are the chances you could maybe rough something out in a slightly long, oval shape? Y’know, kinda like…

I am going to play around with making a carry stone. I couldn't get my photos to upload to imgur of what I have cut so far... May go for a hike tomorrow to the neighbors to a better cell signal (mountain life joys)...

My saw leave the stone on the coarse side when compared to my commercial whetstones. The saw is what we use to shape sandstone for paving stones.

Well the main reason I ask is because I’ve been offering these Strider whetstones through my Etsy shop, which I use real stones for - but I’ve had to just dig through the landscaping rock beds around my neighborhood (and elsewhere) to try and find appropriately sized and shaped landscaping rocks, and let me tell you, it is MUCH harder than you would think it would be to find actual rocks that are this size and shape, without weird lumps or irregular shapes, or what have you. In the end, I’ve had to resort to using a lot of smaller or oddly shaped stones, and I’ve just been filling the bottom part of the little sheath with clay, then glueing the stone in over that to hide it - which of course makes them just static props that cannot be used in any way. But I’ve had quite a few folks ask me now if I could make theirs removable, and if they could actually use it as a sharpening stone, and I’ve had to mostly say no, because good LORD it’s hart to find a good rock!

Manv: If Megan could cut you the right sized blanks, you can finish and shape them on a coarse carborundium 'stone'. Obviously a Practical stone will cost more then a static prop due to the extra work (both yours and Megan's).

Of course its hard to find a good rock...... Why else would you carry the extra weight of one

ForgeCorvus wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 6:44 pm You've got a Stone Saw!......You were born to be one of us.

I have a tile saw, basically the same thing only smaller, and the worst that can happen is I ruin a blade so next time I have a reason to dig it out the garage I might have a play

Meganbeyer wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 9:35 pm My saw leave the stone on the coarse side when compared to my commercial whetstones. The saw is what we use to shape sandstone for paving stones.

hmmm... I'm guessing this is a stihl saw (or something to that effect), I'm not certain because I've only used what ever random blade the hire company gave me but I'm mostly sure that different grades of blade exist, maybe it would be possible to get one with a finer grit that would leave a smoother finish?

Iodo our saw is a oversized tile saw, and i think a finer grade diamond blade would leave a smoother finish.b The other factor to the finish is the hardness of the sandstone. Some of our sandstone is very porous and soft while other is harder.


I did go out and cut several slabs down to carrying sizes. The stone is easy to shape with a file or another rock. Theses that i cut are slightly long to carry, but could be split down to what ever size one wanted with ease. Could crack it over the edge of a squared surface, ect.
I would be willing to send them out. I figured for my time and what not $15 a stone + postage if anyone wants one.


All stone

knife

Edit- the yellow sandstone is coarse, red is finer and the grayish is fine.

Those look really cool, thanks for sharing the photo's it is interesting that although they are all sand stone the different colors have different grades, I am guessing that that's because the different colors of stone were formed from different types of sand at different times

Those look great, pity I'm in the UK as postage would make them far to expensive for me..... Otherwise I'd be tempted to buy a set.

Re: Different grits and hardnesses, I saw a program where they're building a new castle somewhere in France using old techniques.
They get three different grades of stone (in different colours) from the same onsite quarry which are used for different purposes (Hardest for arches, foundations and finework, softest for wallfill and so on).... It must be nice to have good stone on your property, I live in Norfolk where we only have a choice of the hardest and the softest stone (Flint and Chalk or Carrstone).

ForgeCorvus wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2023 7:38 am It must be nice to have good stone on your property, I live in Norfolk where we only have a choice of the hardest and the softest stone (Flint and Chalk or Carrstone).

Norfolk has some beautiful country though, and flint is very useful in our hobby

Forgecorvus postage is expensive... I wish I had flint though. I buy mine online for my strikers.

Meganbeyer wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2023 5:02 pm Forgecorvus postage is expensive... I wish I had flint though. I buy mine online for my strikers.

I though it would be..... Never mind.

For F&S fire lighting I use worn out gunflints

For those of you interested but who may have found the price of entry daunting, the maker of my stone is having a Memorial Day sale.
Use the code "𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐃𝐚𝐲" at checkout for 35% off.
https://www.naturalwhetstonesharpening.com

*I'm not affiliated with this company, just an enthusiast.