Thread: New to Honing

For those new to honing I always recommend the Norton 4k/8k combo stone. Can't go wrong with it.

So, what are you going to be honing, a new razor, a eBay beater or touching up a pre-honed edge?

Hard Ark Translucent and Surgical Blacks are finishers and depending on, how the stones are prepped, will only polish a finished edge.

All natural stones will perform differently, so it is difficult to predict how a particular natural will perform without using it. You will probably need a hard Ark in a progression or finish up to at least, a 8k prior to the Translucent.

There are many great Ark threads in the Hones, forum. A full Ark progression is fully possible, but there is a somewhat steep learning curve, different from a synthetic progression.

Getting together with a local mentor will speed up your learning curve.

Arkansas stones leave a nice smooth edge, but be prepared to work at it. In my experience, even if you've honed razors on other types of stones, like a Norton 4k/8k, and aren't completely new, using Arkansas stones takes some time. They aren't really known for being fast cutters. They do seem to last significantly longer than a lot of the major synthetic stones, however, making them a nice investment.

I would say something like this might be better:

https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/S...e-P284C96.aspx

The soft side will take care of you when your edge gets dull, the hard Black will put the final polish on your edge. Only thing I wouldn't use that for is a dinged edge, because it would take the soft stone forever and a day to eat away enough metal to repair the ding.

You can always add in a hard stone as an in between step if you find going from soft to Black a bit slow. Dan's is the usual go-to. Best sharpening stones also has good Arkansas stones.