Thread: True Hard Arkansas

If you were interested on how their black stacks up

"The Black Arkansas is the finest stone that we manufacture. It can be finer than the Translucent Arkansas and True Hard Arkansas stones. It has a very smooth and glassy feel to the stone. It will help you to achieve a razor sharp edge. As you have found that there are companies out there that are marketing the Black Arkansas stone that are not genuine Novaculite stone products and they do not perform the same as our Black Arkansas (novaculite stones) do. They tend to be a softer material and do not produce the same time of finished edge."

Again Kim's words from Dan's whetstone company.

Thank you for that in depth analysis of the finer intricacies of these stones.

Nice looking rock.

Sent from a moto x far far away...

Originally Posted by S0LITARYS0LDIER

After a long email conversation with with Kim at Dan's whetstone I commissioned them to cut me a big slab of true hard Arkansas. They normally don't cut true hard in this size but I persisted. Wasn't much of a trouble I just asked and they checked if they had it.

Lucky for me they did. I asked them to cut it and a week or so later it was on its way.

It's literally a translucent with some awesome looking banding. At a lower price than the translucent. That is a win to me.

It arrived today and I took it for a quick touch up test run. Didn't burnish it or anything and just used water. I'm not a believer of the whole burnishing train of thought and am happy with it wearing due to age and use. The shave will be the judge.


I love it. I may go through hones like people change socks but this one will not be going anywhere. Attachment 256714Attachment 256715

Did I get it right? You used the stone with water while honing, not with oil? How was the feedback?

So...from what I just read if you want a rock that has character and produces one hell of an edge, you want a True Hard Arkie? I'm going to have to contact Dan's...

Yes eddymerckx, they can be used with water. They like oil a smidge better, but you can get similar/same results with water (and maybe a little glycerine or Smith's honing solution).

Originally Posted by eddymerckx

Did I get it right? You used the stone with water while honing, not with oil? How was the feedback?

Yes I used water only it's not as good as other things such as oil or water with soap added but it can works the feedback is less "muted" then it would be with oil.

When I still did not know that I have a translucent arki, I used it as a coticule - with coti-slurry and under a running tap as a finisher. Then I learned here http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...questions.html that it is an arki and I would have read somewhere, one should not use it with water but with oil, because it otherwise became "clogged"

Originally Posted by eddymerckx

When I still did not know that I have a translucent arki, I used it as a coticule - with coti-slurry and under a running tap as a finisher. Then I learned here http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...questions.html that it is an arki and I would have read somewhere, one should not use it with water but with oil, because it otherwise became "clogged"

That's more of a concern with soft and hard Arkansas stones. They have larger pores, which are prone to get clogged with swarf and slow the stone down. Water is also a poor lubricant, which leads to the stone surface wearing and becoming burnished because these do not release grit particles like most natural stones would. We don't want that burnishing to happen with a soft or hard Arkansas, and using water as a honing medium means refreshing the surface more often to offset the burnishing and keep the low and middle 'grit' hones cutting like we want them to.

The pores in a translucent are much finer, and we generally do want them burnished and removing less metal because it's the final stone. So water here is a little less 'problematic' than it would be in a lower grit stone. I use mine with water and shaving lather. It's also been burnished to Hell and back, so there's nothing I can do that's going to slow it down anymore than it already is.

^ what he said.

Couldn't help myself. Placed an order for a True Hard. I hope they've got some adequate material in stock, I've already got a Black and a few run of the mill Translucents. We'll know when It gets here. I guess this means I need to pick out a suitable test razor and get it prepped to 8k so I can test the full line.