Thread: Arkansas Adventures...

Originally Posted by kelbro

Washitas and softs work well for setting bevels.

I did finally break down and buy a synthetic and as much as I love naturals, I have to say that the synthetic is more efficient. Not better, just quicker and cleaner (water only).

I suppose you already know but it can be done water only with a Soft or a Washita too.

I just like playing with slurry. I kind of have a ghetto Nagura system going on. Coticule rubbing stone for whatever a Coarse/middle grit Nagura would be. Couple of varities of Welsh slate rubbing stones to overlap the middle grit and work into the tomo nagura areas. And I've used the banded translucent kind of like folks might a Jnat. I've also got a piece of 800 grit Naniwa that I cut off to use as an extra-coarse nagura. I haven't played with it much, but I'm willing to wager that could be used for anything the 800 grit stone itself can do. I did set one bevel with it for kicks 'n grins, might as well have been using a 1k stone.

I needed to take 5 from lapping the stuffing out of that big old translucent tonight. I'm at about 220 grit SiC (also working up the Jnat cause it's small & easy, but who cares about that little fella?) At any rate, comments in another thread kind of got me wondering...just what's in that multi-colored emerald True Hard stone? Well, best way to find out is to play with a light, right? Right! Just so you guys can see what I'm playing with, the stone without any light applied:



Those bands of grey you can see at either end of the hone? Pure translucent. You can see the light glimmer through a solid inch of stone:





Since we're limited to 5 pix per post, I'll make a second one. But pretty cool so far!

The left side toward the small grey band lets light travel pretty freely through the stone. Looks kinda cool, I have a green translucent stone!





I kinda like how the light seemed to follow this 'crack' (for lack of better term...more like a joint between layers of material).



And then there's that black patch. I kinda figured this wouldn't let much light pass through. Inclusion of surgical black, or black translucent? It does let a teeny bit of light through...



And one more for good measure:



I kind of wish I could've gotten a better photo of the way the black patch blocks light coming in from the back side of the stone, but my cell phone camera seems to filter that out.

So many cool variations when you are dealing with natural formations. I think that also explains a lot of the challenges that some folks encounter when dealing with coticules and belgian blues.

Yeah. Fortunately the only variation here at the end of the day is color. It's all Novaculite, 99% Silica. It may not look like that solid uniform grey translucent stone. But I bet it will perform the same once they're equally burnished.

Coticule if I remember right is %30-%40 garnet, Belgian Blue a little less Garnet a little more other mineral. I haven't seen what the other %60 is comprised of, but mine appears to have wood grain and little round clear flecks of who knows what. But I'm certain that not only does the concentration of garnet change, but the size of them is probably that which is farthest from uniform. If I were to use my coticule for a diluticot style honing for example, the edge would be equivalent to a 4K at best, and quite uncomfortable to shave off of. I had to very gently sneak up on a fine burnish to make that stone a finisher, shear and round off the garnets without dislodging them. And it's by no means one of the 'hard' examples of a coticule.

I think I took about 2,500 strokes with a light straight razor using only the weight of the blade before it was ready to be hit with Chrome Ox and a buffing wheel. And that was what finally put it solidly into finishing hone territory. Kinda takes all the fun out of owning a coticule. No unicot, diluticot, water or lather honing. Just get the razor to 8k on synthetics, then switch to the coticule and finish with about 100 strokes on a 1 to 1 mix of mineral oil & mineral spirits. Too mechanical and boring, no challenge to it.

Some body is going to have to explain to me what exactly is a "Black Translucent" because that just seems to be antithetical

Originally Posted by Magpie

Some body is going to have to explain to me what exactly is a "Black Translucent" because that just seems to be antithetical

1 part legitimate question, 1 part tongue in cheek jab at having 3 different classifications for 99% Silica that has a density of +2.50. See here, Black stone:



Which has a small amount of translucence:



And here, different black Arkie:



No translucence:

And at long last, 2 monster Arkansas stones flattened, polished up to a Kuromaku 12K stone, and ready to meet the buffing wheel tomorrow:





Small side bonus that the little Jnat is also ready for action. Or will be as soon as I burnish it with it's Tomo nagura.

Might also need to round the sides on the green stone. But I'm happy with them, or will be shortly.

Originally Posted by kelbro

Washitas and softs work well for setting bevels.

I did finally break down and buy a synthetic and as much as I love naturals, I have to say that the synthetic is more efficient. Not better, just quicker and cleaner (water only).

Call me challenged but it took me just as long on a 1K king synthetic as on my Washita with a slurry

Originally Posted by Steel

Call me challenged but it took me just as long on a 1K king synthetic as on my Washita with a slurry

Mine is a Naniwa Chosera 1K and if you asked me would I buy it again, I would most likely say no. Impulse buy, if any of you can relate.