[John Frankl]

Hello All,

I just came into possession of a very old, potentially very nice, translucent Arkansas stone. The problem is it is horrible gouged both top and bottom. The good news is, it's about an inch thick, so I think I can get a like new 1/2" thick stone out of it.

I would appreciate any and all suggestions regarding ways and places to get this thing "slabbed". I am thinking local granite/marble counter/tile places? Any other thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

John Frankl

[Alan Longmire]

John, anyplace that does stonework or tilework and has a diamond saw will be able to help. I recently ran into this problem in trying to cut various crystals to set in a new wedding ring for my wife, but on a much smaller scale, of course. A tile saw should do it quite well.


Failing that, I have a few cheapo Chinese diamond blades for a dremel/foredom tool that did the job on small stuff. Dunno how they'd work on bigger things.

I have an old ultrafine translucent Arkansas stone that I use for final sharpening on critical things, and I would be lost without it. It's well worth getting refurbished.

Aren't you in Korea? I just got hold of some Green Tea-flavored Soju of the low-octane variety. Good stuff!

[John Frankl]

Thanks Alan. Yes, I'm living/working in Korea, but home for a couple of weeks. Ah, yes, soju.

John

[B Finnigan]

I just cut a slab of Arkansas oilstone a few weeks ago. I used a composite blade on my table saw and it worked great. You have to go very slow and avoid oscillations that will crack it. The cut was very rough so I used an aluminum oxide stone to surface it. You have to use a wire brush to keep the AO stone clean. the final surfacing was done on my belt grinder with a zirconia ceramic belt. It took about three hours to finish but I got the chunk for $5 so it was worth it.

It is hard to beat those oilstones for a good edge with a polish.