Thread: Hard Arkansas

Ok, was not shure which stone you were referring to. 50 laps seem like a lot, I do 6-10 for a micro ark bevel with good results.
Not that it matters if you’re getting good shaves.

Now the 2-ark jump seems like a lot, but I just shaved with a razor that I bought from an old guy, who honed it on a 1k and finished on a barber hone, Nothing in between. I don’t know how many laps but it was a very smooth, keen shave. So it could be done, especially if you taped and did a micro or secondary bevel.

I only did 50 because I've seen other guys posting how slow they cut. It changed feel after probably no more than 5 - 10 laps from what felt like cutting to more like skating on glass or ice. I probably would have been fine on the coarser side at 5 - 10 laps, but the finely lapped side probably will take closer to 50 based on my testing on the sample piece I finished. I still have a lot of stuff I want to try out for sure. I may go Shapton Pro 1k - 2k - Ark coarser side - Ark finer side and see how that works as well.

In my opinion (and this is only opinion, because I have no proof) once you get that skating feeling, you're in the land of polish instead of cut, and I like to do another dozen or two laps (depending on the razor's bevel size) to make sure that the polish has taken good effect. I haven't used tape with an ark, though.

The green jade stone that I was so quick to curse makes a super excellent follow-on to an ark stone, it is a finer and slower cutting stone yet and the edges that come off of it are both smoother and sharper than an ark stone. It cannot follow anything less fine than a black ark.

Green jade? What's that

Originally Posted by nicknbleeding

Green jade? What's that

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ml#post1350243

Agate is probably a more accurate description.

I had some issues with it making what looked like edge damage back when I made this thread, same with the jasper, which had little mill marks in it that I didn't notice. I still haven't lapped the mill marks out of the jasper, so I don't know if I can get those marks out, but the agate has stopped doing the edge damage it did in this picture. It's a very odd stone. It goes from activated to very dull feeling literally in the time it takes to sharpen one chisel, so I won't be using it for that. After using it a bit longer such that all foreign particles, etc, were long gone, it now is completely smooth.

Sharper and smoother than the novaculite stones, and slower cutting (those two go hand in hand, I'd bet).

This has become the Arkansas thread of Arkansas threads. Very Good Read, with lots of Nice Pics too.

Last night I took the razor that I previously honed on the coarser side of my black translucent ark and this time added two layers of tape and honed it on the finely lapped side. I put on two drops of Tap Magic cutting oil and wiped it back off then started honing. Felt like it was skating the entire time - never really felt it cut but I could see a very slight increase in the reflectivity at the edge of the edge. I started with a medium amount of pressure and after about 100 of the laps lightened up and did the last 50 with only about the weight of the razor and enough pressure to maintain the edge flat on the stone. So I went about 150 laps total and then cleaned and dried the razor after removing the tape. Hit it on the nylon side of my strop for about 5 laps and then went to the plain leather for about 50 laps. Again had an excellent shave with about 2 - 3 days beard growth, a bit better than the honing on the coarser side but not a drastic difference - the WTG pass seemed not much different but ATG was a bit smoother. This stone is quite good, doesn't need any help from a pasted strop or sprays of any kind.

here is my washita at the top and my translucent Arkansas at the bottom.both work well together.

Looks like a couple of nice stones.

Are Dan's hard blaco stones what others classify as surgical black? Is there anything special about a ttranslucents black? And does the different proportions of cryptocrystalline to micro crystalline quartz have a significant effect beyond the SG of the stone?