Thread: Vintage Arkansas

for whatever reason, I didn't even notice the black stone. I thought it was a box!

Its probably not black either, just layered an a whole load of grunge. Likely a Washita or the likes.

Yup, Translucent, looks like a nice size, if it is smooth just clean it, If it smells of oil. Oven cleaner will get the surface oil off, soak in ¼ solution of simple green and water in a closed jar and set in the sun. It will slowly release oil for some time.

I have soaked some for months. I have a lilly white soaking now for 6mo, keeps releasing oil.

A Slow cooker and simple green solution will speed up the process. 10 dollar thrift store crock pot. If you use a crock pot, put it on a couple of chopstick so the solution gets to all the sides.

Finish on an 8 or 12k then finish on the wet Ark with 2-3 drops of Smith’s as said. You will be rewarded with a crisp, keen edge.
The black stone is most probably a Slate, possibly a Thüringen from the size and color.

One thing I find curious is the Trans box says Scranton PA. You would think an ark stone would be from arkansas. I highly doubt though that a translucent would hold a lot of oil being they're so dense theres no way a lot would be able to soak through but who knows. I just wash mine off after every use with warm water and dish soap. Of course a degreaser never hurts. And honestly unless you just don't like the smell, I don't think (in my opinion) that you need to get all the oil out of the stone, just whatever is on the surface if its all gummed up. I mean the blade only touches the surface so what does it matter if there is oil under the surface or on the sides or bottom.

Oh one other tip and I have found this helps a lot. You can make sure both sides are lapped and break one side in and then leave the other side freshly lapped all the time that way you have a faster side and then finish on the other. Kinda like those dual sided barber hones. It wont be like a huge difference but another step in a smooth progression.

You would be surprised how much oil an old stone can hold, years of oil saturation. Yea, you don’t need to remove all the oil, but it gets rancid and stinks. Soaking will remove it.

I have seen stones that I thought were black arks when I bought them, that turned out to be Lilly whites after months of soaking.

Unless there is a problem with the face, it does not need to be perfectly flat, just smooth. If you re lap it you will remove years of burnishing. Try it first, lap as a last resort.

so if it needs a lapping i will use my dmt that is very breaked down and after i thought maybe i can use one of my high lvl jnats and smooth the surface with?

I have used a DMT with an Arkansas translucent before and it's not very efficient nor fun. Just lately I used SiC (silicone carbide powder) 220/400 grit on a granite slab. I was BY FAR more efficient, still not fun but it's works a ton better than wet/dry low grit paper.

I also dressed the stone with 800/1500 wet dry sand paper.

They are very hard. I have had best luck with loose Silicone Carbide grit, starting with 60 grit. You can buy a ¼ pound for around 4 dollars. For about 20 you can get a nice progression, you will only use a teaspoon of each.

I buy from GotGrit.com, it is not expensive and a little goes a long way. They also have some nice Chrome and Cerium Oxides.
A table spoon full and a cookie sheet to contain the mess on a hard flat surface, a little bit of water and drop or two of dish soap will get you to flat with a bit of work.

Then move up the grits and transition to Wet & Dry sand paper after 500 grit with water and soap. Once flat, you can move up the progression fairly quickly. Mark the stone with a sharpie, pencil will just wash off and is useless with loose grit.

Go as high as possible with W/D at least 1K higher if you have it.

Arks will eat a DMT, though some say using a lot of water will save the diamond plate. I have always used loose grit and W/D paper. I do bevel the edges with a diamond plate.

Finish with hard steel. Once done you will never have to do it again.

Don’t know about Jnats, but have used other Arks. The goal is smooth as possible.

If it is smooth you do not have to lap it, many old arks I get do not need lapping, they are very hard stones.

Ok thanks for the tips! ill just haf to wait and see how it looks.

Yeah +1 on the SiC. It will be much better and cheaper then buying a billion sheets of W/D or possibly messing up your DMT. I use my diamond stone at first and it worked but took forever. I did do it under running water and it helped not destroy my plate totally but its still not what it use to be. After I finished on the 2k W/D i then used my Dragons Tongue and rubbed "lapped" it with that for a while then I used a coti and then a C12k. Then lots of steel. Not necessary but I just wanted to see what would happen. Nothing bad happened