Nearly every piece of cutlery of any kind that I've had in-between that day and this, met that stone at one time or other.  I had kept and used that stone so long it was about 1/2 gone.  Been dished and flattened and dished and flattened again many times.  And you don't dish these stones easy, nothing compared to what you'll do to a water stone or other soft stone.  These stones last and last through the hardest use.  1/2 the stone gone?  That is a lotta use guys.  I think the most I've ever seen in the wild was a single dishing.

These are stones made for work.  Not your yuppie pretender $4000 designer stone.  This is the stone you find in every major industry and trade where people need to get a serious work done with as little faldaerol as possible.  Generous sized, cuts faster than anything out there.

So now, many years later and a million miles down the road, one morning...  there it was, laying on the unforgiving hard cement shop floor, in 2 pieces.  Raggedly broken about 1/3 of the way across.

A moment of hurry, and a lid that wasn't fastened down well enough, and then, even the instant instinctive juggle attempt to catch it, wasn't enough this time.  It got away and tumbled free and seemingly in slow motion, as I helplessly watched, it flopped down flat and opened up.

In a word I was heartbroken.  We'd been through so much together, that stone and me.  I've lost pets that didn't hurt as bad as seeing the old war horse hit the floor.

Of course, I used it that morning anyway, in shorter than usual strokes, but it wasn't going to set right until the problem was corrected.  I went on eBay and found and bought another Norton crystolon. This time I took the larger size, 11" X 3" . It arrived in about a week or so.

I must have a stone box.  You can't expect to hone tools on a stone dancing around loose and you can't hold a stone in one hand while you try to hold a blade in the other and expect to sharpen a tool. If you try clamping the stone in a vise you will eventually chip up the edges or break it. Plus you will drag your knuckles and being accused of being a knuckle dragger, I already suffer at times. No sense giving them sure fire ammunition! :-)  So, I built a new stone box.

Building a good stone box is a totally worthwhile project.  While you can buy them, the offerings I've seen aren't as refined as I expect and the lids are invariably loose lids that offer little security for your stone when it comes to moving them around.  I had worked out what I considered the perfect stone box through three tries at it, for the original stone. So this time it was pretty easy to make one.

Here is a drawing of the original to help you if you want to make one. This is for a standard 8" X 2" stone.  No, I am not going to provide a detailed cut list and templates and hold your hand or wipe your nose. This is as easy it gets, so you might as well get used to it and tough it through.

I like the box to have at least 1 1/2" under the stone to raise it high enough foe true comfort when clamped into a vise. So I start with a scrap of softwood 2x4 liner or bottom. This keeps it up high enough for hand clearance in use and the solid wood stuffing is for holding the box in the vise so it won't ever accidently crush. The sides and ends I went with 3/8" thick wood.  The top is more like 1/2".  I make the box full sized closed, then saw the lid off when it's complete. The lid must open up all the way, so it's out of the way in use. I saw it so there is a scant 1/8" lip surrounding the stone and the rest is lid.  Ordinary small box hinges and a catch complete the box.