Thread: Arkansas: Translucent or Surgical Black?

Looking for an arkansas stone to use as a finisher after the coticules and I'm stuck choosing between the surgical black and the translucent. I know the surgical black has a gravity of 2.50 and translucent a gravity of 2.55, just wondering if that is enough of a difference to make the translucent a better finisher?

Also, would this be a good place to buy one? https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com...rpening-stones

I find that the Trans Arks provide a better feedback than the SB, however, you can not go wrong either way. I dress all of mine the same way, 600 Wet/Dry followed by a quick rub with a kitchen knife to knock down any "rogue" spots. I also use propylene glycol USP as my honing fluid of choice.

IMO, the best value for your dollar is to email Dan's and see what they have available for Primitive Cuts. I have a 13 1/2" x 4" ish trans Ark Primitive Cut that I got for a song. As with all Dan's stones, one side will be as close to flat as you can get.

I went in the middle with a True Hard from Dan's.
I can't say enough good things about this stone.
I use it with water and a drop of liquid soap.
Every one of my razors, around 125 of them, is finished with this stone after Shapton Glass 16k.
For me, it takes the bite out of the keenness and produces a buttery smooth, comfortable shave.



Good luck with your choice.

Pete <:-}

I know the surgical black has a gravity of 2.50 and translucent a gravity of 2.55, just wondering if that is enough of a difference to make the translucent a better finisher

Nope, they are natural stones that can vary from stone to stone and seller to seller.

All that matters is your stone, how it is finished, your technique and if you are satisfied with your results.

One of my stones is 2.5 sg and the other is a touch over 2.6sg, I don’t notice a difference from one to the other. Marty said it best, it really depends on the prep done to the stone. If you roughed one side in at 320-400 grit and the other side polished and burnished there would be a huge difference in apparent “grit” rating.

I'm looking at these, because they are the least expensive I can find anywhere, but I'm wondering if these would be the same Surgical Black Arks that I can find at the other vendors? https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com...&product_id=74

I have never used a stone from this company, but I'm going to make an assumption that the flatness is nowhere near where it needs to be for use with razors and you will be in for plenty of work getting it true.

Not worth the savings, Dan’s are flat to within thousandths, well worth whatever it costs. If you have never flattened a hard Arkansas you’ll soon find out why you want to pay the money.

My Dan’s surgical showed up flat enough it only took 5 minutes to make perfect then just polishing and burnishing from there which was still a couple hours worth of work to get it where I wanted it. My other stone is a vintage Pike as far as I can tell. It was out like .007” and to get it flat took 1.5 hours roughly. I could have left it as was but in my experience results are much more consistent having a flat finisher. Hard Arkansas stones don’t cut for a damn compares to almost everything thing else I’ve used. You’ll enjoy yourself much more if you can remove as many variables as possible, makes pin pointing issues much easier.

Ill chime in and confirm the stones from Dan's are VERY flat when received. I have a few stones from them and they were ready to go out of the box.

Otherwise your gonna need a lapping setup of some kind, and possibly a straightedge to check it.

Veritas Tools - Sharpening - Lapping Grit

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop...iABEgL5F_D_BwE

I have this setup because i like to take old beater stones and fix them up, but if your buying new you shouldn't have to.

That's a rabbit hole right there.

I’ve been hearing good things with Rh preyda arks.

I doubt most people could tell the difference between a trans ark and a surgical edge

Another company to look at is natural whetstone. Prices look good.

More than likely any stone you get will need some degree of lapping, A granite tile checked to be flat with precision straight edge. With loose SiC grit and/or wet dry sand paper..

If.you choose the burnished ark route, I have finished an ark to 1000 AlOx loose grit , then burnished stone with box wrench, but prefer stone not burnished