Thread: Translucents Arkansas One Stone Honing !!!

Hello everybody,


I have been for along time silent viewer of SRP and B&B, and I really appreciated the knowledge that you guys provide in this forum...so I hope that you accept my first post here.



I don't know if this is new or I'm repeating someone's discovery, anyway while I'm playing with my vintage Translucent Arkansas the other day I tried a small pocket Hard Arkansas stone to produce a slurry on the Translucent Arkansas... which did yield a good amount of slurry and accelerated the stone speed 10 times at least...




Then I started to experiment with different types of slurry from different stones Eschers, Coticule, BBW Cnat and whatever else I had.

The results were astonishing, I was able to get better edges from all the stones using their slurry on the Translucent Arkansas Hone.

I can set the bevel on a razor and take it up to shave ready using Coticule slurry in half the time that I take using Coticule stone, no dilution of slurry or nothing, I try only to maintain the slurry from drying out by adding water as needed.




The most beautiful thing about this method is it really helps to know which stone is finer than the other.... now I know which of my Coticules is finer, I also found that a vintage BBW that a had is finer than some of my Coticules, I also divorced that one of my Coticule slurry stones (recently mined) is as fine as an Escher hone.
Even it does help with the Eschers where is really hard to spots the difference between them since they are all have a consistent quality, I did find that the finest Escher hone that I have is a blue green one.
The results using this method are very consistent, even under the microscope which help me a lot in comparing the edges.
The method is very simple
1. I spray water on the Translucent Arkansas the I rub the selected stone to produce slurry.




2. I starts with fair amount of pressure if I want to set the bevel, moderate pressure if I want to remove micro chips, or light pressure for touch up .



3.after I finish I spray water on the Translucent Arkansas then I brush it with a small brush that I got from Beauty Supplies Shop finally I wipe the stone.





I tried to produce slurry using Hard True Arkansas, but without any luck the stone is to hard



I have a microscope but the photo quality of it camara is very poor thats way i didn't post comparison pics




( x160 )



I know that this method is not orthodox by any means , but it does a very good job.... also you can use a lot of pressure without harming the hone while setting the bevel, but you need to be aware that you might miss up the razors grind.

I hope this does help someone to see new potentials for their Translucent Arkansas.






Thanks for everyone, and sorry for my bad English

I do the same thing - experimenting with diferent sluryes on hard or medium stone in hardness . to make it work in a wider range . Man you understand so many things this way . IT is a slower , but sure way to geometrycaly perfect . crisp edge .
Well for finishing the thuringian base with thiri slurry is unbeatable i think

Many of us hereabouts have used this method using different base stones with assorted slurry. It is a really fun way to hone, and you're right in that it really does help you to learn the base stone, and what can be done with different finishers. One of my favorite's was a Translucent Ark with Escher slurry... Here's a great thread from a few years back on this method...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...lynn-glen.html

Kind of goes against all I have been reading about the arks, thought they were a final finisher requiring a lot of burnishing and a lot of laps. If it just a base for slurry, couldn't you use a piece of granite or glass?
And Wolfpack34, I am experimenting with the lead dressed strop. Found that interesting.

Originally Posted by Grazor

Kind of goes against all I have been reading about the arks, thought they were a final finisher requiring a lot of burnishing and a lot of laps. If it just a base for slurry, couldn't you use a piece of granite or glass?
And Wolfpack34, I am experimenting with the lead dressed strop. Found that interesting.

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.

Originally Posted by Grazor

, I am experimenting with the lead dressed strop. Found that interesting.

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

Originally Posted by gssixgun

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

Made a Roo strop in the weekend specifically to try the lead......

Originally Posted by RusenBG

I do the same thing - experimenting with diferent sluryes on hard or medium stone in hardness . to make it work in a wider range . Man you understand so many things this way . IT is a slower , but sure way to geometrycaly perfect . crisp edge .
Well for finishing the thuringian base with thiri slurry is unbeatable i think

I'm a Thuringian addict myself in my opinion they are the easiest and the finest hone to use although i haven’t tried any Jnats yet, for me using my Translucent Arkansas as a base have lead me to a butter results maybe because the Translucent Arkansas will not release new slurry and since it's a hard base the slurry particles will crush themselves to smaller particles, but I don't really know.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Wolfpack34

Many of us hereabouts have used this method using different base stones with assorted slurry. It is a really fun way to hone, and you're right in that it really does help you to learn the base stone, and what can be done with different finishers. One of my favorite's was a Translucent Ark with Escher slurry... Here's a great thread from a few years back on this method...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...lynn-glen.html

Thanks for sharing this great post

Originally Posted by Grazor

Kind of goes against all I have been reading about the arks, thought they were a final finisher requiring a lot of burnishing and a lot of laps. If it just a base for slurry, couldn't you use a piece of granite or glass?
And Wolfpack34, I am experimenting with the lead dressed strop. Found that interesting.

Well I think you could get one and start experimenting with this particular stone I tried to finish a Filly on it with 400-500 X strokes it did make a big transformation for the edge under the microscope but I couldn’t notice any swirf

About using granite or glass as base I can tell you about my experience with granite since I have tried it and still using it. you can use different slurry stones with granite or even use a diamond plate to raise slurry from the granite itself (which is my preference, it can reach 10K + in my opinion), the down side with using the granite is that you need to maintain a ton of slurry to avoid chipping the edge, what causes the chips is the Quartz which is embedded in the granite in a large particle size as you can see, its harder than steel and in you can feel the increase of resistance once your blade passes one.



So by maintaining a high volume of slurry and light pressure you will avoid chipping the edge. If you are a knife guy granite is a very cheap and effective knife hone from setting the bevel to shave-sharp in one stone and very fast too if used with slurry, since a few microchips won’t affect the knife unless if you're shaving with it

I have not tried glass yet, the only challenge in my mind now is raising a slurry on the smooth surface of the glass I can use diamond plate to do so but the slurry particles will become bigger, interesting idea