Thread: Arkansas Adventures...

“My Ark adventure should start these days.. got this from a friend to try.

Tips? This is the first Arkansas I'm handing.”


With old Arks, I just clean them and try them with a razor first before lapping. Chances are they have years of burnishing from use and lapping will just remove all of the finish.

Your stone probably needs to be burnished to produce a more refined edge. Also, as said do not use slurry. Try some Smith’s or Ballistol, just a couple drops on a wet stone, of even mineral oil, it will wash off with dish soap when finished honing, after burnishing with a large knife or tool steel.

Originally Posted by MW76

I did a fun experiment with a washita a few weeks ago while setting a bevel..

I started with a freshly lapped surface (400 Atoma) on an old Norton washita and used a smaller pocket sized washita (that i made from a broken Buck #134) to create a slurry. What i found was the washita cut first at normal speed, but with each slurry cutting action would slow (obviously from burnishing) and the edge would get more refined. I did about 5 sets of 100 laps each on a new slurry, then I switched off the slurry to oil for a few hundred laps at the end.

Ill tell ya, I shaved with that edge just for kicks and it was very sharp, a little harsh.. but a much smoother edge then what I get from a Cho 1K. Its the closest I've come to a one stone honing process.

Just a fun experiment.. Since then i just keep one side of the stone freshly lapped and the other side burnished and just use them in that order for bevel setting.

Love this stone..

Yes! +1. A slurry is helpful or harmful when you use these stones. Helpful if you use it the right way (which it seems you did). There are quite a few of us that have found this out ESPECIALLY with a Lily White from Norton. If you take your time and finish with a "stropping" stroke, strop on CrOx and FeOx, then leather you will get a very good edge. The problem with this method is that it can take a lot of tinkering but it is doable. I have old literature that suggests a stropping stroke on these Washita stones to finish.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

“My Ark adventure should start these days.. got this from a friend to try.

Tips? This is the first Arkansas I'm handing.”


With old Arks, I just clean them and try them with a razor first before lapping. Chances are they have years of burnishing from use and lapping will just remove all of the finish.

Your stone probably needs to be burnished to produce a more refined edge. Also, as said do not use slurry. Try some Smith’s or Ballistol, just a couple drops on a wet stone, of even mineral oil, it will wash off with dish soap when finished honing, after burnishing with a large knife or tool steel.

+1 Your stone is probably plenty flat to use and by flattening more you will only remove years of burnish. If you do choose to rough it up then do one side and leave the other. I would leave both alone. These rocks are so hard they rarely go out of flat to the point that they would affect the razors edge negatively.

Thanks everybody! I did some honing... probably 400 laps. Didn't use slurry anymore.

It's an interesting stone. I did a few things. Tried to touch up a razor with around 100 laps. Definitely sharp, but I've done much better.

Then I finished a different razor on a jnat, heavy slurry, I was aiming to get the cloudy finish and see what the Ark would do. After 200 laps, I saw the kasumi was disappearing and the stone brought a semi-mirror finish. I could clearly see the scratches now. Still the same sharp edge, a bit keener this time, as I was getting some decent HHT results.

At this point the stone isn't very slow, probably because of lapping. So gonna take a Gold dollar or something, and burnish it, then I'll try again.. and I'll try oil, too. Fun stuff

Originally Posted by Srdjan

Thanks everybody! I did some honing... probably 400 laps. Didn't use slurry anymore.

It's an interesting stone. I did a few things. Tried to touch up a razor with around 100 laps. Definitely sharp, but I've done much better.

Then I finished a different razor on a jnat, heavy slurry, I was aiming to get the cloudy finish and see what the Ark would do. After 200 laps, I saw the kasumi was disappearing and the stone brought a semi-mirror finish. I could clearly see the scratches now. Still the same sharp edge, a bit keener this time, as I was getting some decent HHT results.

At this point the stone isn't very slow, probably because of lapping. So gonna take a Gold dollar or something, and burnish it, then I'll try again.. and I'll try oil, too. Fun stuff

To give you an idea of how fine and slow they are, using a True Hard/Translucent/Black Arkie as a finisher after a synthetic 8k I do around 100 laps pure water followed by 100 on a slick shave lather.

So to use one as a touch up stone, I would either use a pre-finisher first, leave the back side roughed up to cut faster but not as fine and max that out before flipping to the more burnished side, or if you've got some sort of slurry type stone experiment with a non-native slurry on one side of the hone. I'm fond of Welsh slate (Dragon's Tongue) slurry, but I've also had success with a coticule rubbing stone to lightly set a bevel and work up a good pre-finished polish.

Finally got what I was trying to get out of that Morley, a solid shave from an edge cut on nothing but Arkansas stones.

I think the biggest problem was underestimating how much the Soft, Hard, and even True Hard were eating into the tape. You can see evidence toward the shoulder of the bevel where the tape was starting to get thinner and lift the edge away from the hones. If I'd replaced the tape at shorter intervals I'd probably have been where I wanted to be during the first honing session. It never got burned all the way through, but I think it got burned through enough.

Oh well. Live & learn. It only makes sense to have a little more trouble when dealing with a few new things at once. I've used the soft for touch ups, but never a full bevel set. And tape is foreign to me, most of my Ebay finds came complete with hone wear so there was little need/want to protect the spine. This Morley was practically NOS with little if any spine wear and I wanted to keep it that way.

At any rate, it shaves now. 1 pass with minor touch up, clean enough for work tomorrow, and no burn when I splashed on the Old Spice. I'm happy with it. Shaves like a Morley finished on an Arkie should!