Thread: Arkansas bliss

I use a hard black Arkansas stone just like glytch5's. Prepping consisted of sharpening a kitchen knife. If one cultivates just a little patience, edges from hard Arks give a wonderfully smooth edge.

(I have found that perfectly flat and fastidiously surfaced sharpening stones of all sorts are certainly nice, but not at all necessary.)

Originally Posted by JeffR

I use a hard black Arkansas stone just like glytch5's. Prepping consisted of sharpening a kitchen knife. If one cultivates just a little patience, edges from hard Arks give a wonderfully smooth edge.

(I have found that perfectly flat and fastidiously surfaced sharpening stones of all sorts are certainly nice, but not at all necessary.)

Yes prepping for me was just a few uses of other blades for this particular dans. I also have a Dan's pocket black ark, its semi translucent and is probably the finest ark I own, right out of the box great surface. It can be hard if you condition an ark to strike the right balance between fine and still cutting. This stone is just perfect in the center I think. plus 10 points Dan's!

.pif arks get your blood flowing , Dan has a chunk out in the yard that's about 3' around translucent, if could have figured out how to steal it on my bike I would have it sitting in my back yard with the top lapped flat of course! Tc

If you pick up a coticule rubbing stone, and use it gently to build a light slurry on a finished arky. It doesn't harm the burnish much and speeds them up to normal speed. If your stone has 2 good faces then you can use 1 face just for this.

I can get an absolute killer edge with this method.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

.pif arks get your blood flowing , Dan has a chunk out in the yard that's about 3' around translucent, if could have figured out how to steal it on my bike I would have it sitting in my back yard with the top lapped flat of course! Tc

.pif? haha lets go get it man! I have a "black translucent" from naturalwhetstones.com and after some break in, its a reeeaallly nice hone. Its like 80 or 90 after shipping for a 6x2x1 which isn't too bad I guess. I find it too slow though.
I want to try a coti, I hear a good place to pick one up is at theperfectedge.com he claims his are only graded ones.

All coti's come from the quarry graded into standard and select. The only difference is select don't have the visual flaws that are common in coti's like black dots and lines.

thesuperiorshave

that's the place to go if you want to see the stone you are buying. Do some research on them first as coti's are not as easy as other stones.

Originally Posted by Iceni

All coti's come from the quarry graded into standard and select. The only difference is select don't have the visual flaws that are common in coti's like black dots and lines.

thesuperiorshave

that's the place to go if you want to see the stone you are buying. Do some research on them first as coti's are not as easy as other stones.

oh yes definitely going to have to research before buying one. A loooot of research thanks for the tip. Perhaps I will just bug you guys about which one to buy when the time comes : )

I have been using Arkansas stones on my razors for about a year now and I hone, on average, 5 a week. They are indeed wonderful stones that are as attractive as they are effective. There are MANY ways to use them and it has been a fun and challenging journey for me but now I have a system that is consistent and the edges, like you have found, are excellent. I have about a dozen so far and am looking for more Bring on the yard sales.

Originally Posted by Steel

I have been using Arkansas stones on my razors for about a year now and I hone, on average, 5 a week. They are indeed wonderful stones that are as attractive as they are effective. There are MANY ways to use them and it has been a fun and challenging journey for me but now I have a system that is consistent and the edges, like you have found, are excellent. I have about a dozen so far and am looking for more Bring on the yard sales.

Do you use any soft or hard arks before the black finishers? I haven't had any luck with the softer arkansas, just synthetic finish up to the black.

You can certainly get great edges from a Ark progression. Its not the easiest way to hone but it does work. I don't hone much these days but have used a soft for bevel set to hard to black. Makes for a real nice edge but you have to work for it.