Thread: New guy stone ID

Hi everybody out there,
wondering if anyone knows what this is? i got it from a barber lot from missouri. its very hard and slow. just touched up with it a couple of times and like it. its 5x2x 1/2

Hard to say, photos a bit blurry. Possibly an old Translucent Ark. What is the size?

Put a flash light on it and see if light passes through. How were the edges?

Its kinda got a Coti color, but im not the one to be listening too. Closer pic with it dry and wet sometimes helps others tovfigure it out.

BTW, Welome to SRP you lurker.

As this is your first post, and as a fellow New Englander, welcome to SRP. Just my opinion, but it would be good if you could present yourself to the forum as whole, stating your reasons for joining, experience and interest in shaving, and so on. The reason I say this, rather than seeking to identify the stone as presented, is that some folks sign up and post just once or twice to have a stone identification and then go off to sell it as identified elsewhere. Not saying or suggesting that you are doing this, just that it would be better to know a little bit about your interests here before attempting to identify the stone as shown, this being your first post.

Well a thousand and 1 pardons. I’m not sure if I introduce myself here but here goes. I got interested in wet shaving several years ago and liking to be overqualified for things I do such as de shaving I decided to try straights. I suppose Clint Eastwood is to blame. I haven’t looked back yet. As a professional musician I am actually able to both get razors and hones in various parts of the world but also meet some of the honemeisters on YouTube. I like natural stones and vintage razors. Living in Rhode Island I am not far from matt at GRIFFITH shaving and he has given freely of his wisdom and experience. However I just thought I’d ask about this stone as I thought it might be an Arkansas and matt doesn’t have any. Anyways here are some other pics also the stone wet. It does get any whiter running a Dmt over it and doesn’t look much different wet. Any improvements on presentation or etiquette are very much appreciated as I’ve never been a member of any forums. Happy holidays

We are happy to have ya as part of the family! What insterment do you play? A member of a well known band? Traveling is a great way to find ztones and razors at good prices. Welcome again.

I will let the more experianced offer an opinion on your stone as im not that experianced in naturals yet.

If it is a Translucent Ark, I have had several that look just like that, you can get it whiter by soaking it in a 50% solution of Simple Green or Awesome and water. Years of Oil use penetrate the stone. It can take months to completely remove all the oil. Awesome is a bit more aggressive.

I have several stones soaking, some for months in glass rubber sealed pasta jars. The seal keeps the water from going rancid, I change the solution every few weeks/months and scrub the stone to remove oil that has come to the surface, with hot water and dish soap. Hot water and solution will speed up the initial surface oil removal.

The solution will get darker with oil release. Once the solution does not change color, all the oil that is coming out, is out.

The oil does not affect the performance of the stone, but it gets rid of any rancid oil smell.

There is much written about Ark Translucent and Surgical Black finishing for razors, they are unique edges, you can also tailor the stone face to get finer edges on your razor. The smoother the stone face the slower and finer it will cut, you can add paste or Nano git sprays to improve or tailor performance and shaving edges.

Prep both faces differently to produce an Ark finishing “Progression”,

Trany Ark after years of oil.

Well, that explains the color. Thanks Marty.

Thanks for the background, and I hope you can understand the reason for my asking.

Like the others, I agree that it looks like an Arkansas stone. Perhaps a lily white Washita as well, but the latter is a little bit grainy.

Assuming it hasn't been cleaned up, try putting some water on the surface to see if there's a oily discharge. Most Arkansas and Washita stones have been used with oil, and that is how I always use them. If it is an Akansas or a Washita, I would not recommend using a diamond plate to lap them. These are very hard stones that can trash a diamond plate pretty quickly. Silicon carbide powder and water on a thick sheet of glass or a dedicated lapping plate are better. I use the powder like this in the 80x to 320x range, followed by wet/dry sandpaper on up to 2000x as needed for the black hard Arkansas. Or sometimes the grit powder to 600x, followed by w/d sandpaper.

Well thanks for some very good and no doubt hard won info. So it’s maybe a translucent ark that’s full of oil. It’s soaking right now in simply green. I like that idea of making 2 different sides. Thanks one and all!