I would like to get me a good quality Arkansas Translucent stone. Any recommendations such as websites. Thank you.
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I would like to get me a good quality Arkansas Translucent stone. Any recommendations such as websites. Thank you.
Natural Whetstone, Dan's, and Hall's are 3 reputable distributors. Google should easily find them for you.
Natural Whetstone has quality stones as does Dans, I own both. Never tried Halls but have read theyneed more lapping than the others. No matter where you get one make sure to tell them it's for razors and you need it dead flat. It might still need some lapping but not much.
I've had halls, norton, dans, NW...and some other vintage trans stones, as well as some independent offshoots.
I like the dans trans the best of all of the new ones, the NW "black trans" which is just a dark gray trans the second best.
I've never bought a large dans stone at regular price, and the black and trans 2x8x1 stones I've gotten from them averaged about $100 with extremely minor cosmetic issues.
I only ever had one halls black stone, a huge one - 12x3x1, back when they were cheap (that was $90 shipped from a place that I think was called "knife merchant" - who no longer has them). It was so far out of flat as to be unusable. I lapped a part in the center about 10x2.5 and got on with it and eventually sold it at a great loss (that sounds nutty now, doesn't it?). I like the dans black better, and I believe halls was sold to someone else and now the prices are high. At the prices they want, I'd just go to dans instead. Dans has more and better stock and is deadly consistent.
The one last option is a norton HTB 83 (or whatever their 8x3x1/2 trans is). It's $79 all the time, needs very minor flattening and they sometimes show up used on ebay for about $55-$60.
Still, buying one stone, I'd haunt the specials page on dans.
Excellent advice Wid, exactly the kind of advice I am looking for. Thank you.
Dan's translucents sounds like they have a good reputation. Thank you.
Both of their hard types are tops (the black and the trans), as is their surface treatment. Unfortunately, there's nothing on the specials page at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by jelajemi
Dans black easily equals (or bests) the translucent from Natural Whetstone. Not saying they are a bad stone, they are a quality stone too.
This type of comment always cracks me up, lol. In a different thread, not a couple days ago, someone made the exact same comment but with the stone distributor names switched.
With all due respect, did you take a stone from each place and go through the exact same preparation for both honing surfaces and test identical razors honed one on each stone type with multiple blind tests before arriving at this conclusion?
I ask because I own a NW "black" translucent, a vintage Pike white translucent, and a vintage maker-unknown black, and with all 3 prepped the same way I can't tell the edges apart. All 3 are outstanding.
I think differences between Arks are more or less down to density.
Have you tried a Dans?
As far as testing using the same method of preparation, indeed I did. Both done with sic power then taken up to 2K using wet/dry sand paper. Then using a chisel to burnish each. You can question my finding, that's OK. I'm happy I can amuse you.
A blind test means that you shave with the razors while not knowing which was honed on what, not that you shave with your eyes closed, lol. (Upon rereading, I see that the part this comment was in response to was edited out, in case anyone wonders what the heck I am on about).
I have shaved with an edge that was honed on a Dan's stone, but I don't own one. I found it equally as good as the rest of my good Ark edges.
Yeah, I changed it after I realized what I wrote and how stupid it was LOL.
Haha, no prob. I do it all the time. The worst is when you can't erase it (speaking)!
lee Valley
That's a good point. I forgot that LV started carrying the 1/2 inch thick dans stones.Quote:
Originally Posted by rmihai
Which reminds me, they do, tools for working wood does, and from time to time there are other retailers who will have a better price than either of the above (google dans stones, the dan's stones always come in a box that's marked with their brand on it).
I believe the first quality trans 8x2x1/2 is about $79. You could do razors for 15 lifetimes with it.