Thread: ARKANSAS STONES

i'm very interested in how you get on with using a slurry with the ark i have a peice of broken soft stone that i've thought of using as a slurry stone have to find it first,i think using a translucent or black as a finish after faster cutting stones could show more people the smooth polish edge that we enjoy and if slurry works it could change how they are veiwed as too slow to be any good

some times i'll use chromium oxide dry honing compound on my translucent i'll rub all of the oil off and spray the stone down with water and sprinkle the chromium oxide on to the stone and hone with the edge going forward. translucent stones makes a great base for this

Here are some photos of my Norton No. 1 Washita. IMHO, I consider it to be a hard, fairly fast hone somewhere in the 3000 grit range.

I like to use my Washita when I am setting a bevel. I first start out with a King 1000 water stone and when I am about half way to where I want to be, I introduce the Washita and start pyramid honing between the King and the Washita. This combination works for me and it seems to speed up the bevel setting process.

I have shaved off of the Washita/King pyramid. It was not a comfortable shave, but it did shave.

very nice washaita all ark are hard my washita ,well all washita are porous thats what makes them fast cutters your washita looks to be more dense tho

At last I finished lapping the brown Arkansas I talked about earlier in this thread. It took about two and a half weeks in total to lap lol, so a Hard Arkansas then. The big one only took about an hour, maybe two. Hence I assume it's a Soft Arkansas.

The tiny one seems to be an Arkansas as well. It's very hard and pretty smooth but the surface looks perforated. When I put it in the oven to unbox it oil came sweating out. It was actually all brown when I put it in and came out with that stain. What do you think it is? Hard Arkansas or a Translucent?

It looks like a black hard Arkansas to me. Nice work! Hope it gives you a great edge.

The translucent I have seems like it is a good finisher, but I wouldn't do anything else with it, it is monumentally slow. I use it after my coticule, and it produces a much more polished edge as observed visibly on the bevel and with shave results. But it takes at least 20 minutes to get there. I can sit listening to music and just keep going back and forth on the stone, and literally after that much time the water on the stone will not darken at all.

I have this 12"x4"x1" washita that I bought at the quarry's shop in Arkansas about 20 years ago. I use it for knives.

I got a full set of these when I started woodworking, but switched to Norton stones because they work SO much faster. I haven't tried them on my razors. I've heard of some guys (woodworkers) putting diamond paste on a hard black arkansas stone to help it put a super sharp edge on a chisel in little time. I've been meaning to try it, with chisels and razors, but just haven't got around to it yet.

piet it looks like a hard ark the dark black areas on the stone looks like pine pitch which was used to glue the stone in the box when i unbox i use the stove i have an old pan thats three inchs deep i fill it with water sit the stone over top of the pan on the edge of the pan and the steam does the work it melts out the pine pitch and the stone falls out of the box into the pan in the bottom of the pan i have a rag so the stone doesnt chip. useing this method will not stink up the whole house sweating instead of cooking the stone