Thread: Translucents Arkansas One Stone Honing !!!

Originally Posted by DireStraights

He uses the slurry for the sharpening and refining and then just the plain arkie for finishing I assume.

I tried the same thing when I got my trans ark and it is fun. It makes the slurry from any stone cut faster. I don't do it all the time but it is fun to mess around and definitely does not degrade the edge.

I see some of the Eschers you have on ebay right now, pretty nice stones.

Actually, I finish using slurry the same started with, but the finishing pressure will be the very minimum that I can maintain the razor straight along the stone...

Thanks

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Been trying that on a Roo strop myself, very interesting, been using Bullet lead


To the OP,,
You can also reverse the process and use an Arkie to raise a slurry on most any water stone, tons of fun playing in the mud

Thanks Glen, I gained a lot of my honing knowledge from your videos, but man try to get the camera closer to the stone, it will benefit us a lot especially with seeing the different strokes. About reversing process, well what you're seeing now is the reverse of what I started with initially

It's fairly common for tool honers to slurry their fine ark stones. At least the newer honing tutorials often advocate it. A hard ark loaded with its own particles is a very fast cutting stone so long as those particles remain on the stone.

This is larry williams, a fairly well known planemaker in the woodworking community. He likes to slurry his oilstones. I don't necessarily, but it's just personal preference. I do like to slurry a soft ark from time to time to make it a fast bevel setter (and it is just that, a very fast bevel setter when slurried).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ClNp_Eknw

Originally Posted by DaveW

It's fairly common for tool honers to slurry their fine ark stones. At least the newer honing tutorials often advocate it. A hard ark loaded with its own particles is a very fast cutting stone so long as those particles remain on the stone.

This is larry williams, a fairly well known planemaker in the woodworking community. He likes to slurry his oilstones. I don't necessarily, but it's just personal preference. I do like to slurry a soft ark from time to time to make it a fast bevel setter (and it is just that, a very fast bevel setter when slurried).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ClNp_Eknw

Hello Dave

I agree with you about the speed of an Arkansas stone with it's own slurry, but the problem is when you use the diamond plate to produce slurry you leave the surface of the Arkansas with the scratches from the diamond grit which may reduce the finess of the stone.

Dave I know from your YouTube channel that you are using Jasper for finishing a razor, have you tried to raise a slurry on it .... also can you tell me where I can get it.

Thanks

I think that's a problem, too. We can quickly get excessive with stones if we want to - the obvious easy answer to me is one of two things:
1) get a second stone (that's not cheap in a full sized hard arkansas)
2) use something else as slurry on the stone, like oiled slurry off of a hone slate

I prefer not to ever agitate anything more fine than a washita stone, that and stones below can do metal removal, and then a well settled arkansas stone will remove high points but stall once the surface is uniform, which is a nice thing.

I use the jasper in the video as insurance, because I was intentionally using random strokes and sloppiness to see if the razor would still come out OK. I could have also just taken 100 finish laps on the black ark and gotten to the same place.

Jasper slurry is fine, but aggressive, and the stone is more sensitive to having scratch marks in it than even an arkansas. It cuts slower than an ark when it's settled in, too.

You'll have to find it on ebay, but be prepared to get the stone cutter's marks off. I would look for Biggs Jasper or Owyhee jasper (and also use the words large slab, because most of it is slabbed for jewelry and some of the pieces are very small). You should be able to find a slice of it 1/4th inch thick for about 10 bucks if you have some patience. Shipping will be a bigger problem than the price. It is the hardest natural stone that I have seen that has suitably small particles, which makes it a good candidate for burnishing like I used it, and it's not pressure sensitive when burnishing (it'll yield a fine edge no matter what). I'd save the slurrying for other stones, though, or use slurry from a softer stone on it.

They work well on water, too, so if you have hone slates that you only use with water, you could slurry something like a thuri slurry stone and do well with it.

I too have experimented with slurries with translucent and surgical black for years with good result from Coticules and Thüringen’s. I have also had good results from a natural Naugra progression on arks.

Using glass is just using the slurry by itself much like honing on the stone itself. Lap the glass with a Diamond plate to a flat frosted surface to hold the slurry better.
Using the slurry on a stone creates a synergistic effect from both grits.

Sometimes it works and sometimes not, as Ark slurry, does not break down like softer slurry. Much of the performance from slurry comes from many laps, breaking the slurry down further with each lap, as old time coticule & JNat users know well.

Very nice collection of stone by the way, nice translucent.

I've used a coticule slurry to do a diluticot on a black arkansas with really nice results.

Originally Posted by DaveW

I think that's a problem, too. We can quickly get excessive with stones if we want to - the obvious easy answer to me is one of two things:
1) get a second stone (that's not cheap in a full sized hard arkansas)
2) use something else as slurry on the stone, like oiled slurry off of a hone slate

I prefer not to ever agitate anything more fine than a washita stone, that and stones below can do metal removal, and then a well settled arkansas stone will remove high points but stall once the surface is uniform, which is a nice thing.

I use the jasper in the video as insurance, because I was intentionally using random strokes and sloppiness to see if the razor would still come out OK. I could have also just taken 100 finish laps on the black ark and gotten to the same place.

Jasper slurry is fine, but aggressive, and the stone is more sensitive to having scratch marks in it than even an arkansas. It cuts slower than an ark when it's settled in, too.

You'll have to find it on ebay, but be prepared to get the stone cutter's marks off. I would look for Biggs Jasper or Owyhee jasper (and also use the words large slab, because most of it is slabbed for jewelry and some of the pieces are very small). You should be able to find a slice of it 1/4th inch thick for about 10 bucks if you have some patience. Shipping will be a bigger problem than the price. It is the hardest natural stone that I have seen that has suitably small particles, which makes it a good candidate for burnishing like I used it, and it's not pressure sensitive when burnishing (it'll yield a fine edge no matter what). I'd save the slurrying for other stones, though, or use slurry from a softer stone on it.

They work well on water, too, so if you have hone slates that you only use with water, you could slurry something like a thuri slurry stone and do well with it.

Thanks Dave for sharing your experience, do you think it is imported to find a uniformed Jasper slab or the discolouration does not matter ?

Originally Posted by Euclid440

I too have experimented with slurries with translucent and surgical black for years with gSometimes it works and sometimes not, as Ark slurry, does not break down like softer slurry. Much of the performance from slurry comes from many laps, breaking the slurry down further with each lap, as old time coticule & JNat users know well.
.

Exactly, this is what I thought is the main reason for the enhanced performance.

I'm tempted to try out the black Arkansas everybody is talking about it, but dans one is a bit pricy.

Originally Posted by AljuwaiedAK

Thanks Dave for sharing your experience, do you think it is imported to find a uniformed Jasper slab or the discolouration does not matter ?

Uniform and boring looking makes for a better hone. The really interesting looking ones can have rougher spots. That's what engravers tell me, and they love very hard and very fine hones.