Thread: Hard Arkansas

Originally Posted by Wid

Got the black from Dans today. It's a substantial piece of Arkansas measuring 9x5 with varying thickness. It's a beautiful stone and lays nice enough to use as is.

The stone beside it is an 8x3 black.

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Rick,
That's a winner. What a HUGE chunk of real estate. I tend to go smaller with the hones, but if you like 'em big, they really picked out a fantastic one for you. It looks like the also cut the sides so it would be more rectangular. Did you ask them to do that? I think a lot more work went into yours than mine.

Can't wait to hear how it works out.

No, it was already cut like that Mark. When speaking with them she told me the larger one was more rectangle than the others. That was a big part of why I chose this one. It was suppose to be more like 8x4 so I was pleasantly surprise by its size.

Originally Posted by Wid

No, it was already cut like that Mark. When speaking with them she told me the larger one was more rectangle than the others. That was a big part of why I chose this one. It was suppose to be more like 8x4 so I was pleasantly surprise by its size.

Dang dude that sucker is huge. How much does it weigh?

It is lol. It weighs 3.32 lbs

Can be used to work out too, double duty

Originally Posted by Wid

It is lol. It weighs 3.32 lbs

Can be used to work out too, double duty

Haha, well I think I am about to make you jealous.

What did ya do; buy part of a mountain

Ones a "medium" sized hard black and the other is a large sized translucent. I bought both. She literally just let me know today right as I was about to order a different stone. I had to beg SWMBO to let me buy both. She said that when I first started to get into straights that my reasoning was that it would save money. 10 razors and as many stones and soaps later in the span of a couple of years she said that is not the case. She said that I can't buy another shaving thing for at least a year. I agreed for now hoping she will forget sometime in the near future.

Man, those are real nice. I didn't ask about the translucent, maybe next time.

Touched up a razor on the new stone. It put a pretty nice edge on it, can't wait till it's fully broke in.

Hi folks,

time for me to eat some humble pie ...

After a couple of not really good experiences with Arkansas hones for razors I was convinced they are no good... You also don't read a lot (if anything) about them in our German straight razor shaving forums.

So, I thought it's just an American thing (you know, like Germans loving the thuringians and Belgians the coticules)...

But I was wrong and it turned out that I probably just didn't have the best specimen and definitely not the right prep...

It started to dawn on me after buying this nice stone:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ml#post1357336

Now I have just gotten another one, a lovely translucent Arkansas in a nice wooden box:







It came dead flat and smooth as polished marble. I honed my little 5/8 Kiebitz razor on it (coticule finish) and it took ages but I was rewarded with a nice polished edge and a super smooth shave. No burning of the after shave whatsoever.

I'm a believer now !

Cheers
Jörg