Thread: Arkansas stones

A month ago, I purchased an Arkansas combo soft/hard stone, and a transclucent stone. These are used with oil. Is it safe to hone my razors on the translucent stone...it is approx.6-8k in terms of grit.

The translucent is definitely good for razors
as a finishing hone.
You can also use it with water.
Be prepared that its not too fast.
You'll need a couple of strokes but then its fine.

Hey Razorman,
I use the hard white w/ a slurry to set my bevels, the surgical black as a 4K, the translucent as a 6-8k and finish off with the charnley Forest stone. Although im new to honing, i do get a razor edge that passes the HHT test, every time...six individual razors so far. (Shumate barber, Dovo Soligen, ERN 'ator,' Fredrick Reynolds wedge, Geo. Worthington Clearcut and a Joseph Elliot frameback.)
However, i do have the Shaptons and they are very much quicker...very much quicker and may be your best bet cost-wise.
I love Arkansas stone, but ya have to be patient and experiment for what works best on each individual razor...this may take a couple hours sometimes for me.

Mac

Totally agree on the Translucent. It is a fun stone, but it ain't quick as mentioned already.

Lynn

Lynn; What do you recommend to burnish a Dan's Arkansas Black? Don said to use the diamond 325 but I don't know if I like you guys enough to kill that plate. Dan's said to burnish, just run an old razor over it about 25-50 times and it will be smooth as glass. I've seen in the posts using old knives, cleavers etc and lapping 100-300 times.

I've lapped one Washita, one Soft Ark, one Hard (translucent) Ark, one Black Hard Ark with my 9 year old DMT D8C 325 ........ + a ton of other stones, and it is still going strong. All stones done in the kitchen sink with water running (dribbling) on the plate/stone. So far so good.