Thread: Arkansas Adventures...

So I got this 12 x 2.5 x 1 Translucent monster in a lot on Ebay awfully cheap. It's been sitting around for months just for the fact that I haven't had the will power to flatten it. I started to put a hurting on it with my Norton lapping stone (more accurately, it was putting the hurting on me and the lapping stone) and got it maybe %45 flat picking at it a little here and there. But I finally decided to get serious about making this thing usable, at least on one side. Tonight's starting point:



You can see the black sharpie that kind of outlines where the rock is low. Coming in from the corners and a few marks along the length. After about 2 hours working the stone over with 80 grit loose Silicone Carbide:



Thoughts so far - the Insanity workout program has nothing on 3 hours of circles and figure 8s on a translucent Arkansas stone. I'm never doing this again - from now on all my stones come from Dan's. Because Dan's makes them flat. And I'll be danged if I ever get a Arkenrock bigger than 8x3. I really should've gotten the 60 grit SiC. I'm not sure if I'm flattening the stone, or conforming that poor glass shelf to the rock. It now looks like frosted glass.

I spent another hour on the stone before my arms were officially too tired to go on. Those 2 corners have about half as much area as in the last pic. Maybe less.

On the bright side, it's all down hill once the stone is flat. And I only have to do this with one monster Arkie. And a little hard Jnat, but that's a problem for another day. The True Hard I got from Dan's is already flat and just need to be polished to 2K and burnished. I was hoping to have this flat tonight so I could polish the surfaces tomorrow, and have them ready to go to the shop Saturday for buffing. That's looking a little bit less feasible. But maybe I'll have one prepped and ready to go. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I have one huge butterscotch one I got absolutely perfect over 3 days and retired from ark lapping forever. They are completely amazing finishers if it makes you feel better about this

I'm with you, Marshall. I'll get mine from Dan's. Over the next couple of years I plan to get 3 or 4 more. After my visit this Texan is a converted Arkie.

Originally Posted by kcb5150

I have one huge butterscotch one I got absolutely perfect over 3 days and retired from ark lapping forever. They are completely amazing finishers if it makes you feel better about this

Don't I know it. More of my small treasure trove of Arkanstones:



Believe it or not, the little black one, and that banded brown one are both translucents. Those two are flattened, polished, burnished, and put a really good edge on a blade when I do my part.

That green colored one is a True Hard I got from Dan's recently. It's already flatter than I'll get it with SIC and plate glass, just need to chamfer it on one side, radius the edges of the other, then get one side polished and burnished. And because I never got a picture of the other side in the other thread:



I've always liked Arkansas stones. Wouldn't use anything else when I was honing knives. If I'd listened to my gut and gone with them as razor stones from the onset I probably wouldn't have half the stones I do now. The Welsh slates AJ sells on Ebay are the only stones I've tried that I like almost as much as Arkansas stones. At least as far as natural hones go. That's alright though. It isn't bad to have options when it comes to your hobbies.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get that big grey stone flattened, polished up to 8K, maybe 12, and have it prepped for the buffer Saturday. I can't wait to see how it looks buffed up and ready for action. If it doesn't take too long to flatten the grey stone, the green stone may get the same treatment.

Marshall, do you use the softer Arkies to set the bevel? Tell us some of your experience if so.

Btw, I love your new stone. Besides my Shapton Glass series, I have 3 coticles, 3 Arkies, a Belgium Blue, and a Zulu Grey. Love them all.

I've got Soft & Hard stones too. Whether or not I'll use them for bevels is case dependent. New acquisitions get taken straight to synthetics.

But I've done a few that needed minor resets and touch ups. Bevels that I've set, but decided to joint due to microchipping. The type of work you might use a 3 or 4K stone on because they'll get the job done and save you the trouble of fussing with 1K stria.

I kind of like naturals better for light duty touching up and minor bevel work. One of my favorite ways to get that sorted out with naturals is a Soft Arkansas with Coticule slurry. The slurry on top of the Soft Arkie speeds up the cutting action. Sometimes it surprises me just how much material those yellow Belgian rocks can remove.

The Hard stone I mostly just use as a bridge between the Soft stone and a finisher. I've used it for minor resets and touch ups too, but somehow it just makes more sense to use the soft stone for that kinda thing and save the hard for polishing up a bit.

LTH have you used an Arkansas for bevel setting? I have now set literally hundreds of bevels using a washita stone. They are fast and effective IF you use them properly.

Originally Posted by Steel

LTH have you used an Arkansas for bevel setting? I have now set literally hundreds of bevels using a washita stone. They are fast and effective IF you use them properly.

No. My 3 Arkies are all True Hard, a small Translucent, a small Ark. Black, and full size Ark. Black. I wanted to see some stories about bevel setting with softer Arkies.

I have also set bevels with my soft using the same method as my washita but the washita I use is faster. The one I use for bevels is either a vintage "second" or a dans. They have got bad reviews but I personally like mine better than my lily white except the lily white has a rich history so I keep that in the collection and don't use it much anymore.

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).