Thread: New guy stone ID

Have you applied a lamp to it directly to see if it is indeed translucent? Some pix showing its translucency would be useful here. A translucent Ark shouldn't be full of oil. Perhaps some penetration from the surface after loads of use, but that's about it.

Ok brontosaurus, Just bought a stronger flashlight. Well I guess it is translucent. Should I soak it in simply green for a week when I’m gone or what? Btw thanks

Originally Posted by Dougbari21

Ok brontosaurus, Just bought a stronger flashlight. Well I guess it is translucent. Should I soak it in simply green for a week when I’m gone or what? Btw thanks

Thanks for the shots. It does indeed look translucent. Congrats. Simple Green works very effectively, and I doubt that the penetration is really all that profound. I would suggest soaking it in the solution straight for a couple hours, then take and old toothbrush or scouring pad to lift off any standing swarf, wearing gloves while working with the Simple Green. After that, hit with a soapy Brillo pad and rinse it off before lapping. As others have said, you could surface the faces differently. One side lapped to 80x-120x for a more aggressive effect and the other side lapped up to 1000x-2000x for a polished finishing effect.

You don’t need to soak it, if it doesn’t smell. If it has oil or not it will not affect performance.

Before you change the surface of the stone, grinding, sanding or burnishing, try it. As long as it is smooth and chip free, you may be removing years of burnish by re-surfacing it.

It also does not need to be dead flat, flattish is good enough. Try it first you can always re surface it.

Nice find, old Translucent Arks and Surgical Black are great stones, be careful they chip easily. Use Ballistol or Smith’s honing solution, 2-3 drops on a wet stone for best performance. Both will wash off with water and dish soap.

Looks like you scored a great find Doug. Congrats!

Hi jerry, I’ve played saxophone with a lot of people in the blues world. I’ve been playing with an old friend Jimmie Vaughan for awhile now. We’re going to be in Denver in April I believe.