They make the best tasting amber liquid imaginable! 2 or 3
glasses & you know all & can make/fix anything. Several glasses &
you’re an expert; know everything about nothing. Absolutely no
morning after effects!
Lest you trip over a Scotch stone in a dark alley and be
devoured. In Jewelry, Concepts and Technology, Oppi Untracht
says “…a natural whetstone is the Water of Ayr or Ayr stone
that comes from Ayr, Scotland is also called a Scotch stone.
This fine-grained slate, used with water for the same purpose as
an Arkansan stone.”
I did not know the stone was slate. Maybe try to make some now
that I know the material.
Also used a bunch by enamelers to smooth fired enamel before
final glaze firing.
You can buy for relatively small dollars (i paid $6.00) 60-80
grit stones from a tile store. Ceramic floor tile folk use
stones to smooth the edge of cut tiles. The stones are large,
about 1x2x8 inches, rough, heavy, white, used with a lot of water
to flush the stone, and work beautifully on cutting down enamel
after firing and most especially on calluses and corns. It will
scratch any surface so watch where you lay it down.
Hope this answers some of you questions. Enjoy.
WBR
Bill
Ginkgo Designs
@WILLIAM_I_EISENBERG
They make the best tasting amber liquid imaginable! 2 or 3
glasses & you know all & can make/fix anything. Several glasses &
you’re an expert; know everything about nothing. Absolutely no
morning after effects!
“Scotch Stones”…another term for Scotch-on-the-rocks? I’ve
had a few of those on occaision…and yes indeedy…I was
the “Expert- of-Experts”…solved most of the worlds most
serious problems single handedly, in less than thirty minutes,
with everything neatly diagrammed on a bar napkin, using pens,
pencils, crayons and on rare occaisions…my lady’s lipstick
tube, I only hope that no one has pictures and that I did not use
my real name…lest you see my mug shot on the post office
wall…ouch. NO, that’s a double ouch. Did someone say
"Double"…I’ll have one of those, then bring my tab. Is anyone
up for a “Jack Daniels” polishing disc?
Warmest regards
Ken Shields
@kshields2
End forwarded message
Your prices for Scotch stones seem very expensive!
Richard W
UK
Neal, Scotch stones may be antiquated technology. But there is
still nothing better to do the job. Richard W UK
Well, yes, but they are the best! equal to those from the
Little Four Mine.
John:
sorry, thought you were a foggy Brit. Stereotypes got me again.
G’day?!!?
Well, yes, they are horrible on HSN, aren’t they, but don’t you
think they are exposing people to more and more If
somehow we can get the word out to people that we can sell them
the stone varieties they are seeing on HSN but at the same price
in much better quality, we will eventually benefit?
WBR:
thanks for the tip on the stones from the tile store, i will try
to check it out. Oppi is wrong on the slate thing. my scotch
stone does not look like slate. also, the scotch stone and the
arkansas stone are different stuff. Arkansas fine for sharpening
(fine grit), but i don’t think so for metal finishing.
It’s the Southern hemisphere really. Here in the South Island of
NZ there’s daffodils in bloom round every little farmlet, heaps
of lambs dancing about, magnolias, rhodedendrons, cold bright
sunny days,and even lovers wandering around in the traditional
happy daze. With a hey nonny nonny and all that stuff; sprinng
is sprunng - and envy will get you nowhere. But: When you’ve got
a little springtime in your heart you can laugh at all the wintry
winds that blow…
To heck with New York- I am moving!!! It just sounds way too
beautiful!!! -DeDe
DeDe Sullivan
Producer
Manhattan Transfer Graphics
Tel: 212-907-1204
FAX: 212-370-9346
E Mail: @dede
Hi all,
I couldn’t help but notice all the talk about Scotch stones, and
thought I’d put in my 2 bits… I used Scotch stones several
years ago when I was working in a retail store filled with great
antique tools. The stones worked well in limited applications.
Gesswein offers ‘pencil stones’ which can be ordered in dozens of
grits and shapes and with several binders which affect how the
stone reduces, i.e. conforms to the surface you’re working.
These are much cheaper and actually work better than Scotch
stones, depending on the metal you work with them. The pencil
stones are used mostly by die and mold makers to finish areas
that are difficult to reach. The surfaces they leave depend on
the grit used, of course, but I routinely work my master models
for molding with them, then finish with a rouge buff Metalsmth
Hi all,
I couldn’t help but notice all the talk about Scotch stones, and
thought I’d put in my 2 bits… I used Scotch stones several
years ago when I was working in a retail store filled with great
antique tools. The stones worked well in limited applications.
Gesswein offers ‘pencil stones’ which can be ordered in dozens of
grits and shapes and with several binders which affect how the
stone reduces, i.e. conforms to the surface you’re working.
These are much cheaper and actually work better than Scotch
stones, depending on the metal you work with them. The pencil
stones are used mostly by die and mold makers to finish areas
that are difficult to reach. The surfaces they leave depend on
the grit used, of course, but I routinely work my master models
for molding with them, then finish with a rouge buff Metalsmth
what are scotch stones and what are good for?
scotch stones are a natural abrasive stone, a type of slate, I
think, from a single area in Scotland (thus the name). As with the
types of various pencil stones and slips more commonly used by tool
and die makers, scotch stones are used just in the hand, to smooth
metal areas and surfaces. They have a number of advantages over
powered abrasives, in that, when used with water, they wear down
somewhat rapidly, so the point in use conforms to the surface of the
metal being treated, thus being much less likely to leave swirls and
drag lines such as one might get if trying to get into details with a
rotary tool. One poster described them as quite hard. I think he’s
talking about some other stone. As an abrasive, these things, while
rigid and somewhat brittle, are fairly soft and gentle to the metal,
wearing away, as i noted, fairly quickly in use. Don’t confuse that
to mean they are slow however. You can smooth tool marks and
irregularities (such as solder scars, file marks, etc) on a surface
remarkably fast with them, and with practice, get a surface that’s
almost ready for a bit of rouge, as the stones have a very fine
grain, and leave a surface finish that I’d compare to about what a
400 to 600 grit emery paper will leave. They are especially useful
for getting into things like square corners, or corners and seams,
recesses, or other blind or hard to reach surfaces in general, where
the linear motion of the things conforms to the surfaces better than
a rotary point might do.
they generally are available in a “stick” shape, usually four to six
inches long, in shapes ranging from 1/8 inch square on up. The
largest ones I’ve got are 1/2 inch square, but I’m pretty sure they
can be had larger than that.
I’ve used them to good effect finishing virtually all of the jewelry
metals, including silver, gold, and platinum. Don’t think I ever
tried then on titanium, but i’d assume they’d have some use there,
too, though perhaps slower…
Hope that helps.
Peter