Thread: Arkansas

Jointing your edge all the way to the final hone is certainly an option. I have been doing that for awhile now and get great results doing it, so why not? As to how long/how many strokes on a 6x2, that too seems to vary widely depending on how much blade torque, surface prep and honestly, just how much you enjoy doing it.

Some guys will do hundreds of laps. I cut down on that a good bit with some torque on my highly-burnished Ark surfaces (but only on the beefy quarter hollows or similar that are the bulk of my rotation-don't try it with a full hollow!). The 14"x4" I'm using lately also speeds things up considerably, but not everyone is into the concept of a hone as furniture lol! I generally start with lots of circles and back and forths in parabolic "windshield wiper" strokes. I then start to lighten up as I even it all out with lighter x-strokes. Even on that huge Ark, I'm doing probably 150 or so strokes total, which you would probably multiply by 3-4 on a 6x2. But who counts strokes on a finishing Ark? When it's glass smooth and you don't feel feedback anymore (minimal on a burnished trans anyway), take that light-saber to the strops. I do a post-honing progression from my 2-sided roo up through my various shells for about 150 strokes. If you did everything right you should have the perfect arkie edge: surgically sharp, precise and smooth.

I don't see LHT post much anymore, but if I recall it was him that would hone on an Ark while watching a half-hour sitcom. He was done when it ended. I've done that myself. Arks lend themselves well to that sort of "no-mind" auto-pilot honing once you know what you are doing on one. I haven't heard of anyone over-honing on an Ark into a wire edge, though I suppose it's possible.

One thing some of us were playing around with some time back with great results was what I started calling a "thin to thick" regimen. I was doing roughly the following on my 8x3" surgical black:
1. 50ish back and forth strokes on plain water or until the edge started sticking pretty well all over. Careful at this stage, as digging in on such a hard stone would probably set you back to bevel set! That said, I was/am using a fair degree of blade torque up through the 3rd stage of this. YMMV
2. Do the same thing again, but with a drop of dish soap in the water. You will get enough slip from the soap for a bit more refinement.
3. Wash and dry your stone, then use your preferred oil lube (WD-40 for me, some like Smith's or Ballistol and water) for a final set of the same.
4. Finish on oil with the usual progressively lightening x-strokes.

I sort of quit doing it this way as it seemed kinda fussy, and I started getting equal if not better results just honing the damn thing on oil. That's the cool thing about Arks: as you learn how they work, you can play around with techniques endlessly, and mostly get great results.

Though it won't apply to you (yet), my latest thing is something Outback Mike and I have talked about: take a fully-finished Arkie edge, and do about 50 strokes from a fine slurry to water with an Escher or thuri for the Arkie surgical precision combined with the smoothness from the thuri. I'm still playing around with it, but have gotten some great results so far.

I look forward to your experiments with that stone, Steve!