True Hard Arkansas

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

B/S/T Is Calling. Love That Rock!:rock:Ty

Quite a stone ! Glad to see that Dan's recovered from that fire they had awhile back. I was afraid it might have put them out of biz.

Beautiful stone.

Wow, that is a beautiful, gigantic stone-can you tell us her measurements?

Thanks guys,

Measures 10"x3"x1" length,width, height respectively

Cool looking stone!

That's pretty! It's also a bonus that the banding is so symmetrical.

I too am a fan of the arks earning their smoothness naturally with use.

I have no idea what the difference is between a translucent and a "true hard Arkansas." I'm not familiar with that term. Would someone please explain the difference?

"The Translucent Arkansas (extra fine) stone can be slightly more aggressive than the Black Arkansas stone. It is also very smooth to the touch and will help you achieve a keen edge your knives and razors. As you noted these large stones are more expensive – especially in the Translucent Arkansas grade. The reason behind this is that it is a more labor intensive product for us to come up with these large bench stones. We encounter more natural variations in the stone such as cracks that makes it more difficult for us to cut our products we manufacture out of this material. We do not cut a large volume of the Translucent Arkansas stones in the larger size stones........ If you are interested in this size of stone – I will need to confirm with my production manager and confirm if we will have this size available. It may take some time for us to come up with one if you wish to order this stone."

Taken from my email with Dan's whetstone. Those are Kim's words.

"The True Hard Arkansas (extra fine) stone can also be slightly more aggressive like the Translucent Arkansas stone in comparison to the Black Arkansas stone. The True Hard Arkansas stone is also known as the colored Translucent Arkansas stone. It is just like the Translucent Arkansas stone with the exception that it may have some of Translucent with some other colors such as white or black color streaking in the stone. We cannot guarantee any specific colors in the True Hard Arkansas stones. It is also is very smooth to the touch and will help you to get a razor sharp edge on your knives and razors. We do not intentionally cut this material especially in the larger stones. We also classify the Black Arkansas stones under the True Hard Arkansas category and will substitute the Black Arkansas for the True Hard Arkansas when it is available..........."

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

Don't think anyone will be able to better describe the differences than that.

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.:D

Nice looking rock.

Sent from a moto x far far away...

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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

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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).

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Originally Posted by eddymerckx

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

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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"

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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"

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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.

I wish you a merry wait:beer1:

That is a SWEET looking Arkansas!! Wow. I love the banding.

According to Dans the true hard is the same density as the translucent just different bands of colors.

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Originally Posted by Marshal

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.

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If you're not opting for a 10x3x1 you should be fine.

That is one gorgeous Arkie! Makes my chest hurt. :)
Congrats!

hey solitary our granite counter looks same as yours. on seond look maybe not- the black patches are larger- was from Brazil

Attachment 257882

I'm still trying to figure out how you noticed the counter top with that beautiful Arkanstone sitting atop it.

UPS says I have a box from Dan's out for delivery. I can't wait to get off work and open it up!

A picture us worth a thousand words...


Attachment 258110

The other side looks better to me, but my phone took a poop before I could snap the pic. Better luck tomorrow I guess...

Saaaweeet!!:rock:
Is that a reflection on the stone of your light above?

The stone is wet.

It could be.

What eKretz said. Stone's wet. I haven't started surfacing it yet. All I've done so far is check flatness using my diamond Plate as a straight edge. To Dan's credit, I'm not getting the stone any flatter than they did. So it'll just be a matter of getting this polished and burnished.

Oh yeah, I took the picture. And drooled a bit. I didn't know Arkansas stones showed up with emerald green coloring. That's almost too pretty to hone on.

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Originally Posted by Marshal

Oh yeah, I took the picture. And drooled a bit. I didn't know Arkansas stones showed up with emerald green coloring. That's almost too pretty to hone on.

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You can say that again! Talk about a beautiful stone. Congrats and happy honing.

That would explain the water on the surface.:rofl2:

What a beautiful stone! I didn't see dimensions. I assume it's a 8x3x1. Let us know how it performs. The folks at Dan's are great, as well as their stones.

10 x 2 x 1 actually. No idea why I chose the longer, slimmer stone. Guess it was just time to change it up a bit.

Definitely a looker. And hey, people used to use spit all the time for honing - it's right in the instructions on some hones. So the drool is all good! :rofl2:

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Originally Posted by eKretz

Definitely a looker. And hey, people used to use spit all the time for honing - it's right in the instructions on some hones. So the drool is all good! :rofl2:

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When you're out on the road driving a big rig, you're all about what works. Including spit.