Thread: Question about burnishing Arkansas black

Originally Posted by Grazor

Well, they're not called hard for nothing...Ask again once you've worn a concave/dish on an Arkansas hard/surgical, presuming this site still exists in 20/40 years...
Unusual first post, but welcome to SRP.

Thank you. Glad to be here. Been on other forum for almost 2 years. Lurking here for a few months.

Have a "surgical " hard black on its way. 6x2x1/2 to match my DMT bbw and coticule. Just needed/wanted the next step and the ark sounds like it.

Originally Posted by Steel

I can't speak for anyone else but the "burnishing" part only took ME around 10-15 minutes to take an old heavy blade and do a few hundred high pressure laps. It wasn't that hard or time consuming. I have no problem repeating this in 40 years.

Pretty much this. Yes, I spend more time polishing/burnishing than most. But that isn't the time consuming part. The hard part is getting it flat, after that polishing and burnishing can be done anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour depending on how far you want to go with it.

Mine will arrive this Thursday. We'll see how much work it takes to flatten out. Looking forward to some blood sweat and tears. This may be just what I'm looking for to get the crisp edge I like.

If you got it from Dan's I'll wager the only thing you'll need to do is burnish it until you're happy with it. The stone I got from them was already dead flat across every plane I checked.

I agree with Marshall. A Dan's stone will likely arrive well flattened. I wouldn't take it to the grits or sandpaper unless absolutely necessary.

Not from dans but a reputable source that I have received stones from before. No major issues yet.

Just came in today. Checked with a straight edge and although not perfectly flat it is a very straight rock. Hopefully it won't take too much work.

Well done. Let us know how you finish it off. Now you need a good Coticule. Just finished watching Mastro Livi's school videos parts 14&15 in which he said the two best finishing stones were the Arkansas translucent and the Belgium Coticule. I finished off a Wacker Jungmeister last night on a Coticule and had a fabulous shave.

Originally Posted by Longhaultanker

Well done. Let us know how you finish it off. Now you need a good Coticule. Just finished watching Mastro Livi's school videos parts 14&15 in which he said the two best finishing stones were the Arkansas translucent and the Belgium Coticule. I finished off a Wacker Jungmeister last night on a Coticule and had a fabulous shave.

It really wasn't as bad as I thought. Went through a couple sheets of Norton ProSand 60 and 100 grit. The sheets were destroyed afterwards but they were able to get a good bite and the stone is now flat on one side with beveled edges. At very steep angles there's already a reflective surface.




Next is to keep working through some higher grits to achieve a nice polish. Then start burnishing with an old gold dollar I have.

Already have a couple decent coticule. I like them a lot. This stone was inexpensive and is the same size as my DMT bbw and coticule. I think it will help me get to the next level after the coticule.

You really need something a bit more solid like a carbon knife or cleaver that you can get some pressure on. I used a blade out of a plane.