Thread: Arkansas translucent stone question

Hi Gents,

I recently won the March Giveaway and in the prize there's a Arkansas translucent hone. I want to know if I should use her as a finishing stone or more of a ''quick fix'' barberhone style?? I dont know nothing about that kind of stone. Thanks.

For reference I have a Norton 4/8K, a12K Japstone and two ceramic hones 5-8K.

cheers

AFIK there is nothing "quick" about an Arkansas when applied to razors. I may be wrong though, I was wrong once before.

Ok, I think you get it wrong. What I want to know is in wich categories does it goes. Is it a finishing stone?

It is a finisher, "Allegedly" as with any natural stone, each stone has it's own character, so it needs to be worked to see what it can do, try it first after the 8k Norton has the razor shave ready...
I would suggest 75 laps with a real honing oil as a starting point and work from there...

I have used a black Arkansas to finish a razor and it worked ok. It and the translucent are supposed to be rough equivalents. I've hoped that someone with both hones and a good microscope and camera set-up could show scratch patterns of the Arkansas hones with comparisons of the scratch patterns of other finishing hones, both natural and manufactured. With one person using one razor it would be a wonderful demonstration of the comparative fineness of various stones - irrespective of their supposed grit ratings.

Ah, the things we wish for. Hmmm?

I've got a nice vintage Pike translucent and i really should test it out with a razor. I like it for my pocket knives. A forum member who hasn't been around in the last few years, Russel Baldridge, has posted a bit on honing razors with arks and he said they are not bad, not great , but very slow in any case. Just hearsay but that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

I have one and I will offer two observations.

One is that it is slow, super slow. Mine is certainly a finisher though, I have not noticed the water darkening on top of it even in long honing sessions. Not all may be like this though, from what I hear it has a large part to do with how the surface of the stone is prepared and worn - the smoother the stone, the finer the finish.

Second point is to compare the edge to what I get off my coticule - personally I find that shaving off it has a little more "bitey" feel than the coticule which is smoother feeling, although it does not leave my skin any worse off. It gets a little closer than the coticule as well, I think this particular stone compared to my particular coticule gives more "ultimate sharpness" at least with my hair/skin. YMMV.

Look on Youtube under Mastro Livi and snake razor. he finishes on one.

As for a closeup comparison of the edges produced by different stones, I have some related info, but I can't get the pictures on here. It's from a magazine. Fine Woodworking Magazine did an extensive test of finishing stones on plane irons made of O1 steel. They have magnified closeups, issue July/August 2002, "Sharp and Sharper." Translucent Arkansas stones produced a good edge, but not the best, smooth but with some irregularity that would be slightly scratchy. Norton 8000 produced the best edge of all the sharpening methods, producing a very straight edge with almost no edge irregularities or irregular scratch patterns, and even beating the natural and synthetic imported Japanese stones in 8000 grit. The very finest, sharpest edge was produced by finishing the blade first on a Norton 8000, then on a flat maple board coated with .5 micron diamond paste.
Hope this helps.

I have gotten a few good edges off the translucent. I would not condider myself an expert with it because I have only tried it a few times on razors. I finished up to 8k level than on a well worn in stone with soapy water I gave a 10-15 minutes worthe of very light strokes on it and it gave me very good edge. The stome has to be super slick for best results when used this way. If your stone has not been worn in your results will not be the same.
The slow cutting nature of the stone and not being too much harder than the razor steel is a blessing and a curse. It works very slowly which means you need to spend more time on it and the nature of the material itself makes it cut much finer than it's estimated grit size.
They stay flat for a very long time and are very fun to work with when playing with slurries on them from other stones which virtually changes the nature of the stone. I tried some .25 micron CBN spritzed on top of Translucent that turned the bevel into a mirror under magnification. Definitely woth playing with FME if you have the time.
I do have to emphasize that the surface has to be dead flat and polished FME to get best results. Hope this helps..