Stone cracked

Well, yesterday I was reaching for the box of my stones and found out that JNS synthetic Red Aoto is broken.

I have to admit, I've spotted some cracks about 1-2 months ago, but they were very thin and I couldn't come up with any good ideas for dealing with them. So I just kept using the stone. It's a splash'n'go so I never soaked it. And after sharpening I leave all my stones in the room to dry for a day or two (they are stored in the room, but in the non-ventilated box).

Now I have two stones instead of one… and that big crack along the edge of the stone suggests that I could end up with even more stones one day.



Upon a close inspection, I've found several hair-thin cracks:


So two questions: what to do to stop cracking? Lacquer sides?
Would it make any sense to try cutting this stone into two thinner stones or try mounting it on a base instead?

I checked all other stones and none of them has any visible cracks, which makes me hope it wasn't just a stupid user error from my side.

 

Anton super glue is your friend. Dry it for few days and then glue the other part with super glue. Once it's dry you can lacquer sides of your stone. Make sure that you put thick layer of lacquer or shellac. Then you can glue it to piece of board. It will be inderstructible. I've done same thing with my natural red aoto.

 

Thanks, Greg. I'm in the process of gluing/lacquering that stone now. Lacquer revealed even more hairline cracks so the stone looks like it was dropped at least several times or hit by a truck. Twice. Still I hope it will work after the process of fixing is complete. Would be a shame to lost this stone and I quite like it.

 

Wow! I've chipped off corners of mine a few times but never encountered anything like that.

I'm a little confused about the stone. Mine seems very "thirsty" and isn't especially easy to use without soaking because it sucks all the water up.

I also haven't been able to get results I really like from it, though it may simply be due to lack of use.

 

I would reach out to the vendor, looks like a product and not user error to me. Especially the second photo.

 

Well, I followed Greg's advice and glued everything together. After that I lacquered the stone from all sides except the top. It worked pretty good. Until yesterday. After short sharpening session I noticed 2 hair thin cracks on the top of the stone. When I took it in hands it broke into two pieces. Right where one of hairline cracks was. I checked how strong the remaining bigger part was and after applying just a tiny bit of force I ended up with 3 parts.


well… I guess that's the end of story.

 

Anton ******** happens Just glue it together, apply laquer, glue it to the base and flatten it afterwards. That should help. I have the same story with my natural Red Aoto Frankenstone I just have glued it together and now I am waiting till middle of the week to use router, because I want to make slot for Frankenstone in the wooden base. After that it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Damn… glue it again? With the current cracking pace I guess in just one year I'd end up with CA glue sharpening stone
But I may try that approach simply because there's nothing to loose now

 

No worries Anton. You can always dig out some CA glue from the stone before sharpening. It's like toxic line in J-nat. By glue your stone to the base. It will stabilise the whole thing and you will not apply unnecesary pressure to the stone. It will hold years.

 

That sucks Anton, I thought you were going to glue it to a base with the first repair. This might have been avoided then, live and learn. Still sucks though.

 

Anyone else having issues with this stone?

 

To be honest, the idea of glueing stone to a base isn't that clear to me. The bottom of the stone is completely flat (so that I can sharpen knives either on top or on bottom interchangeably). I don't use any stone holders, so when I sharpen knives, I just use a simple pine plank over the kitchen sink. So as I understand it, that means the whole bottom surface of stone is in constant contact with pine plank basement. So I though my current setup works almost the same as if the stone was glued to a base. I guess I'm missing something.

But, anyway, I've glued all the part once again. Gonna make a separate basement for that stone and see how long will it live afterwards.

 

By gluing it to a base you're eliminating the need to have it EVER need to support any of its own weight. It will always be permanently attached to a support structure (base). It could have a million hair line cracks, and as long as they didn't intersect a corner without hitting the base, they won't ever budge.

Hope that helps.

 

I had some good luck using a piece of plexiglass as a base. Hope you can save it!