Thread: LeeValley now has a full line of Arks!!!

For those of us who fined themselves shopping at Lee Valley often, thought I would post this up. Lee Valley is now carrying a full line of Arkansas oil stone. I can see a couple of these in my possession real soon!!

Lee Valley Tools - Important Announcement

Nice timing. I happen to be going there before the weekend. Gonna check out there arks online. I would presume the soft ark would be more for tools, the extra hard for razors?
Want to grab a half dozen of their knots to have on hand for Sunday.
a good starter size and I presume a good quality knot since its carried at LV.
Thanks for the tip.

I've used their black badger knots before. They need to be set low, otherwise they can get a bit floppy. I think somewhere aroung 46mm might be good.

These Arks you gotta order in. Can go to the store and have them order it, or just order it online. I think I may get a black one.

Remember that surgical black Ark Mike we tried lapping on that crazy steel block you have? Still don't have that one up and running yet. Need to buy a few sheets of sand paper and go at the thing.

Still not set,, that is a crazy hard stone as I recall. May need another ark to cut it against,

To lap an ark is cheap and easy by doing the following.

First buy two Granite floor tiles that are flat.next buy a few pounds of Silicon Carbide Grit in 80-90 grit and 500-600 grit.put enough grit in your tile that when spread around it is even to the stone. add a little water to make it pasty.lay your ark on it and apply even downward force to the stone equally across the arks surface. do circles and figure eights until it is flat adding fresh grit as you go to accelerate the cut.

Once flat clean of the course grit and repeat with lighter pressure to smooth the ark a bit.
You are done ! -cam-

Little bit of a necro but I just purchased an 8x3 hard black stone from LV. Can't wait to get it and break it in. I'm assuming they are dans whetstone co because the pictures on LV's website shows a dans box. I wonder If it will come lapped flat or if I'm going to have to do it...

Yes they are selling stones obtained from Dan's. Dan's usually does a fairly good job getting the stones flat, but they still need a little tweaking to get just right for razor use.

I'll probably pick one up down the road, just to try out.

Originally Posted by HARRYWALLY

I'll probably pick one up down the road, just to try out.

I could always bring it to a meet or we could do some honing one day on it if you wanted. We're not that far from each other. That way you can try it for free.