Thread: Hard Arkansas

Burnishing a hard finish stone is artificially creating a face that has been well used for years. Which is why you do not necessarily want to lap a newly acquired old Ark, try it first.

Arks are so hard, that cutting the face with loose Silicone or Wet and Dry will leave a rough surface.

Burnishing with hard carbon steel and lots of pressure will knock the tops of grit off and grind smooth the cutting grit leaving a smoother less pointy, aggressive grit, similar to well used sandpaper. It is the same grit, but is less aggressive cutting. With sand paper we want aggressive cutting grit and paper, but with a finish stone we want to polish smooth. It may take a few more laps but, time is relative.

It can take many hundreds of laps to properly prepare an Ark face and will continue to improve with use, which is why you do not want to slurry a burnished, finished ark stone, though I have tried both ways and still finish on a burnished stone. Some Arks on some razors perform well with a thin slurry but YMMV depending on a variety of variables.

Arks should be used with a straight, finished edge, you are just final polishing that, may itself take a hundred laps or more depending on the condition of the edge and the prep of the stone.

Done right you can thin slice tomatoes with your cleaver as a by-product.

Originally Posted by Oakeshott

Same experience with me. I ordered two "primitive" arks from them, a trans and a black, and it took nearly a month for them to source, cut and lap them. Never got any updates or notices, but the work was being done.

Hey oakeshott, why don't you post pics of the primitives. I think I saw a picture you posted on another forum unless someone else has primitives from dans. If it was you those two stones or some of the coolest stones I have ever seen. I am currently saving up for a jnat but when I saw those primitives I almost changed my mind and still might. By the way how much was the primitive black. You can pm me if you don't want to answer on the thread.

Originally Posted by cosperryan

Hey oakeshott, why don't you post pics of the primitives. I think I saw a picture you posted on another forum unless someone else has primitives from dans. If it was you those two stones or some of the coolest stones I have ever seen. I am currently saving up for a jnat but when I saw those primitives I almost changed my mind and still might. By the way how much was the primitive black. You can pm me if you don't want to answer on the thread.

Happy to post the picks. Dan's doesn't, as far as I could find, post the pricing for "primitives" but when I called, they understood immediately what I wanted and quoted a price of 35 dollars for the large ones (about 6 x 4). In retrospect, I think I would order a smaller set of them as these are pretty generously sized. I haven't finished conditioning the surface of them yet and have gone back and forth over which one I think is finer.

The only problem I find with these stones is that the irregularity of the edge is no friend to a razor and you have to be careful. I'm particularly referring to the indent on the trans arkie. The rest of the stone is fine.

Here are a pair of pics after I first received them. Back and front. One Trans and one Hard Black.




Here's the most recent pics after some burnishing and with some daylight. You can see from the way the light is reflecting that the black is beginning to pick up a shine at the edges.







I really enjoy these stones but understand they may not be for everyone. I use them for hand honing and they're a bit heavy for that.

Originally Posted by Oakeshott

The only problem I find with these stones is that the irregularity of the edge is no friend to a razor and you have to be careful. I'm particularly referring to the indent on the trans arkie. The rest of the stone is fine.

I can't tell the "indent" on my monitor screen. Could you explain that please ? Is is something that could be lapped out, or is it a depression that would remove too much stone to bother ? Great looking pair. Makes me want to call them.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I can't tell the "indent" on my monitor screen. Could you explain that please ? Is is something that could be lapped out, or is it a depression that would remove too much stone to bother ? Great looking pair. Makes me want to call them.

Jimmy,

If you look at the last pic and focus on the right hand stone (the trans arkie), then you'll see that the side of the stone curves inward toward the middle of the stone a good bit. Kind of like looking at a steep mountainside and noting a concave area where there was a landslide. Makes that area of the stone difficult to use unless your technique is excellent which mine is not. There are also very tiny divots on the edges because they're not chamfered. I think that's what I'm going to do next with these stones. I've put it off because any change work on a hard arkansas fills me with dread and these are big stones.

To be fair, they came lapped perfectly flat. All I did was destroy a pack or two of 1500 and 2k grit sandpaper to start the smoothing. The edges though, in my case, need some work.

If you like arkies, then you should call them and see about getting one. Again,I'd strongly urge opting for something smaller than these guys. I get a lot of joy out of seeing these stones, while I use them, in something closer to their natural state.

What you're seeing on the edge there is exactly why when I get a jasper slab, the first thing I do is mill one true edge on it. Otherwise those little depressions and irregularities just put dings all over the place on an edge - dings you can see once you put the thing under a microscope, and sometimes as a glint of light even with out it.

I would mill that edge into a long smooth curve with a belt sander and then chamfer it.

I love those primitive stones. So much so I called Dave at Natural and ordered one, it is a black that will be right about 6 to 8" and 3" across.

Yeah, I love the primitives alot. they really look cool!

Originally Posted by DaveW

What you're seeing on the edge there is exactly why when I get a jasper slab, the first thing I do is mill one true edge on it. Otherwise those little depressions and irregularities just put dings all over the place on an edge - dings you can see once you put the thing under a microscope, and sometimes as a glint of light even with out it.

I would mill that edge into a long smooth curve with a belt sander and then chamfer it.

Dave, I took your advice and used the belt sander to smooth out the sharp edges. Worked great and thanks for the tip. I should have used it to chamfer them, but decided to use SiC for that. I was afraid of the heat causing a fracture to move right at the edge. That was a mistake. Took forever even with SiC. Used the sander to chamfer the second one and it worked fine.

I need a new sanding belt though.

Hey guys. I got my rocks today.



I really like palm honing, so I got 6x2's. I like 5" better, but there's a point where you hit diminishing returns.

They are pretty flat - woot!!