Thread: Norton Translucent Arkansas

I'll give it a go and do the 2000 side first and see if that gives me that little extra i'm always looking for,then depending on the difference in finish between the two sides i'll decide what i do with the other side,my stone is flat both sides but i can just imagine how hard it's going to be,i have thought about getting a pice of steel machined flat with some grooves like a lapping plate then hardened,might work better than ordinary lapping stones

when lapping my black ark i used a diamond plate with medium pressure after the stone was flat i went to 400 grit wet & dry sand paper 800 g 1500 g and 2000 g and finished the stone with a pocket translucent stone smooth it out nicely

Well, I finally shaved yesterday. Due to ridiculous amounts of overtime and my 10 month old daughter's nap time I had 4 days of beard to whack through. My initial impression is that the razor was extremely close to the 12k in sharpness (ability to shave). It was really too close to be sure but I would say that it was just slightly less sharp than the 12K. However, this was a surprisingly comfortable shave. Though not as comfortable as my coticules this Arkansas was closer to those than the Naniwas, so I certainly did enough honing to change the feel.
I'm very happy with the first attempt. I think I'm going to move on to the Pink Translucent next. I'm going to take the advice and lap one side to 5Mic. I'll compare the bevel from the 600 side to the 5mic side with a loupe (I need to get a USB microscope). I wish I had more time to dedicate to this. I've only had 4 days off work since May.
I did want to say that I'm not trying to prove or disprove anything about Arkansas stones. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'm attempting to conduct definitive tests here. There are too many variables involved with a test like for anyone other than me to draw any conclusions. I've already got a bunch of questions just about my first try alone: Should I have done more strokes? should I have come after the 8K instead? Should I have lapped the stone finer? Each time I try something different I'll have 10 more Questions about that I'm sure. But the biggest factor to all of this is YMMV. All in all I really have some beautiful stones that I want to find out how I can use them and how well they work for me.



Sean

Originally Posted by smgunn

I did want to say that I'm not trying to prove or disprove anything about Arkansas stones. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'm attempting to conduct definitive tests here. There are too many variables involved with a test like for anyone other than me to draw any conclusions. I've already got a bunch of questions just about my first try alone: Should I have done more strokes? should I have come after the 8K instead? Should I have lapped the stone finer? Each time I try something different I'll have 10 more Questions about that I'm sure. But the biggest factor to all of this is YMMV. All in all I really have some beautiful stones that I want to find out how I can use them and how well they work for me.



Sean

Hi Sean,

I am happy to find your successful use of the Ark. It does take some time for even a finely lapped translucent to calm down in terms of their polishing capabilities.

Another experiment that I have found them to work very well is to apply various slurries. With a norton prep stone, the arkie is transformed into an aggresive metal mover. With fine slurries of Jnats and eschers they impart edges that closely resemble the finishes of the slurry material. Arkies are great at this because they do not suck up water and they suface is just porous enough for the slurry particles to lock in and really cut fast. I realize that many hard stones are capable of this, but if you have not tried it with an arkie you are missing something IMHO.

Most of my translucent arks come from Dan's and they are good. I have heard from various people that Norton quarries a very high quality and consistantly good stone too. Dan made me an 8X3 that took quite a while to break in, but the large surface is great and makes honing easier. Thanks for posting of your fun adventures and I look forward to hear more of what worked and what did not.

smgunn i absolutely love the finish i get of my arks but i've noticed i get smoother finishes if i go soft hard then black ark compared to going fine extra fine to black ark and takes me longer to get there too,having used arks on my knives since i was an apprentice(many years ago) i notice the edge gets smoother with successive sharpenings,with the polishing of my black i have thought about going finer than 2000 by using diamond or chro ox to maybe 5000 grit,has anyone done this before as i haven't so some ideas will be handy,also i've asked Dan's about getting two sides of a stone highly polished and how fine they could go,not working's a bit of a pain as i have too much time to think how to do things i always thought of but never had the time like my quest for the ultimate edge

i think the stone is maxed in fineness when it is smooth by sharpening a few knives on it after i'm done rubbing my stone with my pocket translucent and all of the stone is smooth being free of scratchs and flat it wont get any finer now if you use a slurry from a higher grit stone you will get a higher grit finish

Ahh ok i kind of thought that as i had a bit of a rub with 2000 wet dry and it looks to me my stone is smoother than that,i just bought a little translucent so i'll do the rubbing with it and see how that goes as i don't think i'll do the wet dry thing

I decided Sunday to lap these stone to the 3m 5 mic lapping film. I found out that 2 corners of every stone was not quite as flat as the rest. I don't think this would interfere with honing but I'm going to make them as perfect as I can. I went back to the 120 grit and it's now taking me forever to lap it. I'm going tomkeep at them as much as possible then continue where I left off with honing. It may take a week.