Thread: A Charnley? Or something else?

I have a few of the natural whetstone Blacks.imo they are the same as Dans True Hard Arks or a touch finer.they wear in nicely and keep smoothing out and getting finer at a good pace.the Black arks are a tiny bit softer than NW's Translucents which I also own a caramel trans and a Black/Gray trans.cheers.

Originally Posted by yohannrjm

Thanks for the tips, guys. Is there a source of SiC or aluminium oxide that allows purchase in small amounts? It seems like I can only get it in 1 lb lots (too much for me).

Wid - I was wondering about that. It could certainly be the case, and I may just get a Dan's Black eventually. Posts on these forums seem to be divided on the Natural Whetstone Black.

I'll pm you a screen shot of the type of aluminum oxide I get.

Never mind as that function is not possible. cheers.

yohan here's a NW Black Ark prepped in the manner I wrote earlier. this is a dry pic.

Originally Posted by Blistersteel

yohan here's a NW Black Ark prepped in the manner I wrote earlier. this is a dry pic.

Thanks for posting this. It seems like my hone is pretty close to this level of polish already. I will probably buy some of the Al2O3 and see if it improves the polish on my black.

This one doesn't look as good as it could be actually. I will post a pic later of an Ark that really puts on a nice edge. Getting as fine and flat as possible gets you the "fabled" amazing edges. If you're not quite there you'll get pretty good shaves, but once the stone is dialed in perfectly, you'll get amazingly good shaves.

This is one reason a fair percentage of people seem to think that Arks are no good for razor honing - the stones aren't properly prepped when they try them.

here's an 8x3x1 same mine and process

When they are prepped to give the very best edges, Arkansas stones will show a near mirror reflection (when dry, with NO oil presence) not only at an incident angle, but even perpendicularly.


This stone had just been wiped down about 5 times consecutively with acetone to remove any residual oil from the surface. The perpendicular reflection is of an LED light bulb - the half circle shape can be pretty clearly seen - shows up much better even in person, the cheap phone camera is probably not focused well on the surface of the stone.

Originally Posted by eKretz

When they are prepped to give the very best edges, Arkansas stones will show a near mirror reflection (when dry, with NO oil presence) not only at an incident angle, but even perpendicularly.


This stone had just been wiped down about 5 times consecutively with acetone to remove any residual oil from the surface. The perpendicular reflection is of an LED light bulb - the half circle shape can be pretty clearly seen - shows up much better even in person, the cheap phone camera is probably not focused well on the surface of the stone.

Wow! That's some serious shine on that stone!

How did you get it to that point? Finer and finer abrasives, or a chisel and elbow grease?

Also, even with this shine, do you still see the 'texture' of a type of grain on the surface, or is it smooth like glass?

Thanks for posting this.

Originally Posted by Blistersteel

here's an 8x3x1 same mine and process

What's interesting is how black your hone is relative to mine (greyish with streaks). I guess this comes from them being natural hones, but I wonder if the different morphology indicates different peak performance. That's a study for a later day, I guess.