Thread: Best guess

When I picked this up in an antique store ($7) it was jet black and I thought I found a slate hone but after cleaning, obviously not. What do you think, arkie of some sort? I can raise a light milky slurry with it. It has not shown the ability to finish on or it's my technique and maybe the stone isn't capable. After lapping it does have a glassy look to it.

Looks like an Arkansas stone to me

How you finish an Artie has a big bearing on how it interacts with the steel. Most of them will finish finer if they are lapped fine and burnish. However I do not know one ark from another and could not venture a guess as to what the range of this one might be. Some when used with slurry and water are bevel setters. One of the great things with Arks is you can finish each side differently and effectively wind up with a double sided hone with two separate ranges.

Looks ark to me too.

Cheers, Steve

The stone is a little strange because it's somewhat translucent. When using it it looks like your looking into the stone. I'm playing with a black arkie now and slowly figuring things out. Right now the black isn't of finishing quality but getting closer. It was a cheap black so there could also be a stone quality issue, maybe. Earlier this week I got crazy and ordered a true hard arky but it'll take a couple of weeks to show up plus someplace there's a Charnley Forest heading my way. I don't have problems using synthetics to get a fine shaving edge but naturals are much more enigmatic.

Looks like an older Washita stone, nice score, it could also, depending on the weight & porosity be a hard Arkansas.