Thread: How Do I Use These Hones

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

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Interestingly, every translucent Arkansas hone I have has been obviously marked up with a lead pencil. It must have been common practice to coat the surfaces of these stones with graphite as abrasive.

The "pencil" marks you've seen on Arkansas stones were more likely to be steel left behind from the knife sharpening. The curved edges of knives often only touch the stone at a small point, which looks like pencil lines after the stone has been used a while.