Thread: Pink Arkansas translucent stone

All arkansas hones - soft, hard, black, translucent - have abrasives that are roughly the same size. Finer arkansas stones simply have the abrasives packed more tightly with less binder, so the abrasive particles don't get as deep of a "bite" into the steel thus cutting more slowly/finely. Since the abrasive and binder have different densities, how tightly the abrasives are packed can be determined by measuring the density of the entire hone, and this is how arkansas stones are graded nowadays. Within a given grade the color is used to differentiate these stones for marketing purposes but the color doesn't relate to fineness (density). The highest grade of arkansas stone is separated into the black and translucent designations, and there are enough pink translucents that these are sometimes marketed as distinct from the white and grayish translucents. But these black/translucent/pink translucent stones are essentially identical except for the coloration - the pink color is more prized because it is more beautiful. Any difference in performance between the stones is due to the density of the individual stones and not to any attribute related to the color.

However, arkansas stones can come in any variety (and combination) of colors so you can get pink stones even in the lower grades though they won't be translucent (which is due to the very high concentration of quartz abrasives and very little light-blocking binder). I've got a white/red soft arkansas stone (low grade), for example. And my pink has white and mocha swirls in it.

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