Originally Posted by
Euclid440
Arks are harder than Chinese Trig, and will need to be lapped flat with loose silicon oxide, beginning with 60 grit, up 320 and then wet & Dry up to 2k. You can get loose Silicon Carbide from GotGrit.com, it’s not expensive and you don’t need a lot, maybe a teaspoon of each grit, so don’t buy a lot.
If it is reasonably flat just hone a carbon steel kitchen knife or cleaver with a lot of pressure, wet with water and liquid dish soap. Do 2-300 laps or more until super smooth, the smother the better.
If you lap, you start all over. Hopefully, someone has put some mileage on it, and smoothed it some, for you.
“Was I correct in thinking this was finer than my coticule?”
Some say, Arks and Coticules are on opposite ends of the spectrum. A good Coticule edge, is a smooth comfortable edge. A Hard Ark edge is a keen almost aggressive edge, yet not uncomfortable.
Neither stone can be grit rated, though you can grit equivalent rate “your” coticule, by comparing “your” stone, to a known grit synthetic. Arks cannot because, they do not produce a scratch pattern, like other stones, so cannot be compared to a known grit.
Any grit comparison of any natural stone is a WAG. Each stone has it following and have been used successfully with straight razors for hundreds of years. I have several of both and like both edges.
Performances, of both stones, greatly are limited by the user’s ability.
You may want to go back and take some good photos of the stones you left behind and post them. You may want to buy them…
There are good Ark, Coticule and Carborundum stones threads, some Carborundum stone are highly sought, usually the boxes says, for razor use.