# The Celebrated "Tam O'Shanter" Scotch Hone Modification



## cotedupy (Aug 15, 2021)

Recently I got a couple of job lots of stones from Ebay and Gumtree which included a couple of Tam O'Shanters - a soft and fine stone from Scotland unfortunately no longer quarried. Which I was quite happy about as I'd been wanting to try one. Here's the first lot, the TO'S is the red labelled stick thing in the middle:












And the second lot, it's the second in from the right here:











Now these are both slightly silly sized stones. The rectangular one I can use just about as a finishing stone for smaller knives, but unfortunately my days in the topiary world are behind me. It's a young man's game and I have long-since hung up my pruning shears. They have whittled their last hedge. So I thought I might try attaching a handle to the stick one and making it into a small honing rod.

It'd be a shame to lose that original label though, so I took it off. Delicate operation but not too tricky with hot water. Left it to dry, and then dipped in gloss wood varnish:






I then put it on the other stone as I figured it'd get beaten up on a honing rod, and I'd only be using one side of the smaller one anyway. Bit of epoxy and then a coat of the same wood varnish.

The varnish was a tip I picked up from @Badgertooth for sealing stones if I couldn't be bothered buying Cashew liquor, and works very nicely. TO'S don't actually need sealing - this is more to preserve the label - but the stone is effectively now sealed on the non-sharpening side:











I think it looks alright tbh for my first time trying to remove and preserve a label. Part 2 will follow showing what I've done to the other...


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## cotedupy (Aug 15, 2021)

I didn't really have the time or inclination this evening to make a handle for the stick completely from scratch, so I had a look in my box of stuff I made before / things I've removed from other knives. And it seemed to me that that a right-handed d-shape actually works very well for the way you'd hold a honing rod in your left hand. This is a cheap ho wood handle that I then sawed the plastic ferrule off.






I thought I'd make it more interesting by putting a little bit of Red Mallee burl at the end. You can choose to interpret this as a knowing reference to the original red label, or simply as idleness, it being the first little bit of wood I found in the shed. Your call.






I re-ground the handle, keeping the original shape, but now with the smart new bit at the end, and drilled it. This was not an easy drilling operation.






But after filing it to make neat, the hole is actually spot-on. Stick fits in completely snugly, I probably wouldn't even need to have glued it tbh.






Then I sanded down the handle and put some finishing coats on, as well as a little bit of sanding for the stone to tidy it up, and a bit of epoxy to fit.

Et voila... The Completely-Unique-One-of-a-Kind-Not-Celebrated-Until-Now Tam O'Shanter Knife Honing Rod. (With apologies for the crappy indoors pictures!)


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## Steampunk (Aug 15, 2021)

I like it!


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## cotedupy (Aug 15, 2021)

Steampunk said:


> I like it!



Ta! I think it worked out pretty nicely .

Seemed a shame to have quite a well thought of stone sitting unused because it was a weird shape. And I imagine is going to work rather well now as a quick touch up honing rod type affair.


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## riba (Aug 15, 2021)

That looks great


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## childermass (Aug 15, 2021)

Very nice


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## cotedupy (Jan 22, 2022)

This afternoon I was taking nip of sack in my comfortable chair while watching the tennis, and my mind turned (as is its wont) to the subject of sharpening stones. In this instance to a blue example of the Tam O'Shanter which I rather liked, though its worrying thinness had been cause for concern, both when travelling, and in use...

"Great god in boots!" I thought to myself. "I wonder if The Scottish Stone might not be exactly the same size as that nice little piece of Belgian Blue I picked up last year...?"

So I took myself from the comfortable chair and went off to find them, and look:






A new alliance?






Bit of sanding of the undersides, epoxy 'em together, tidy up, and now I have _The Celebrated Scoth Tam O'Shanter - Belgian Blue Whetstone Dual Hone:_











I'm rather pleased with my little purple n blue Tam x BBW combi, here it is with my other weird-shaped Tams. Wonder what I should do with the White Tam safety razor thing...


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## KingShapton (Jan 22, 2022)

Really good job! The honing rod looks great, have you used it yet? how are the results?


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## cotedupy (Jan 22, 2022)

KingShapton said:


> Really good job! The honing rod looks great, have you used it yet? how are the results?



Oh... can't believe I didn't show you that before! I made it about six months ago, so yeah - have used a fair bit, and works nicely.

The only slight issue is that Tam's seem to work better (quicker) when properly wetted or soaked for a bit, which is a bit difficult with a honing rod. Maybe I'll oil it though - they also work well with oil...


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## KingShapton (Jan 22, 2022)

cotedupy said:


> Oh... can't believe I didn't show you that before! I made it about six months ago, so yeah - have used a fair bit, and works nicely.
> 
> The only slight issue is that Tam's seem to work better (quicker) when properly wetted or soaked for a bit, which is a bit difficult with a honing rod. Maybe I'll oil it though - they also work well with oil...


We had written about the stone as a honing rod and exchanged ideas, but I mean at least I hadn't seen any pictures of the finished result. Maybe it's my fault too, unexpectedly things aren't going so well for me again, I'll PM you later.

Another thought about soaking the honey rod - scythe whetstones used to be carried in a kind of quiver on the belt, filled with water. Maybe you could make a matching container and attach it to the wall in your kitchen so that the soaked rod is always at hand?!


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## captaincaed (Jan 22, 2022)

cotedupy said:


> This afternoon I was taking nip of sack in my comfortable chair while watching the tennis, and my mind turned (as is its wont) to the subject of sharpening stones. In this instance to a blue example of the Tam O'Shanter which I rather liked, though its worrying thinness had been cause for concern, both when travelling, and in use...
> 
> "Great god in boots!" I thought to myself. "I wonder if The Scottish Stone might not be exactly the same size as that nice little piece of Belgian Blue I picked up last year...?"
> 
> ...


Kiss me you wicked savage


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