Thread: i might have messed up..... again

so today while in a store I spotted a black arkansas knife hone that was about 1x3 and it was only 10 bucks so i got it. when i got home i tried it on my razor and man did it go from shiney mirror surface to all sorts of scratched up. do arkansas black stones do this or is it just my luck. it hasent been lapped or anything. i figured it was so small why bother.

Part of the reason that you lap new to you hones it to make sure that the surface is lean and pure. I am not an arkie person but I do believe they are on of the hones that it is recommended that you burnish the face. I think most guys work them down with a chisel or heavy knife.

it sounds as though you either got a soft black Arkansas stone in B grade which is a very course soft ark suitable only for course grinding or a soft ark like the one in this picture that hasn't been lapped and worked over with a piece of hard flat steel.colour doesn't set ark fineness but the specific gravity rating does.

this stone is a true surgical black and is a very fine finisher.

In the first pic you can see the little grooves in its surface.these tell you it likely is a soft and lacks a good high specific gravity number that denotes a fine edge imparting characteristic .

even worse, mine appears to be uniform and man made.

Originally Posted by admvalentine

even worse, mine appears to be uniform and man made.

I'd try giving it a brisk rubbing with a heavy carbon steel knife (no stainless) then wash it off with cool clean water to flush it.next give a coat of oil and see what the scratch pattern looks like.

It may just be very coarsely lapped. You'd be very surprised at the transformation they undergo once lapped up to a very smooth finish. The stone will turn from grayish to pitch black if it's a black Ark.

+1 to the above. Finishing up the surface to arks makes a massive difference

Originally Posted by admvalentine

even worse, mine appears to be uniform and man made.

It's hard to tell what it is, but it doesn't look like a black hard arkansas. It might be a soft arkansas, or it could be a carborundum pocket hone (silicon carbide).

Either way, it's a bit too small at that size to be good for razors, but if it turns out to be a black hard ark, it might be a nice pocket hone for knives.