Translucent Prep

Here is a picture of my Translucent Arkansas. It came from Dan's and was selected free of inclusions and high density.

If you plan on trying one for a finisher, the best way I found to lap and prep was with wet-dry sandpaper, full sheets on flat slab of granit or any flat surface. Lots of circles, back and forth with even pressure brought up quick slurry. I started on 120 grit and went all the way up to the finest aluminum oxide film I had.



I almost gave up on this stone after first trying to prep it with DMT. From my experience, the DMT was the wrong tool for the job. Deep scratches, slow and stone did not feel good for high end finishing.

It is now a dedicated finisher used only for shave ready level razors. I have used it on a few razors so far, but all of them gave a very smooth shave, just what you would expect from a finisher.

I use soapy water and the feel is silky smooth.

Kingfish,

I am very tempted to get a translucent Arkansas :)

I used them many, many years ago to finish dissection knives we used at work, and have always been impressed with the finish they leave.

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

very nice looking translucent. i finished mine starting on a broken in dmt 325 once it was flat i moved on to 800g wet&dry on my granite block then 1500 g and 2000g then finished witha 3/4x3/4x3in square tool steel block . i used that steel block like a prep stone to smooth out any scratchs left behind . i rubbed the stone until i got a black swarf all over the stone and repeated 3 times. this will insure that your stone is at its smoothest . to see if you are there put your stone up to your eye you should see the stone reflecting the light the surface should be like a mirror when looking at the stone at an angle. just like a jnat .the stone that went through this process is the stone to the right .

I keep an old chisel around for my translucent ark, and then just lap the back of the chisel on the stone if I've had to refresh the surface (a DMT always makes the trans too aggressive and fast cutting, you can tell by the wire edge on tools). The "smarts" get knocked off of the stone pretty quickly by the back of the chisel, and it seems to cut nice shallow grooves once that's the case.

Never tried a razor on it, though.

Being very close to Arkansas, I really would like to have one of those one day. It would certainly be a lot of fun to play with. Beautiful stone!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by richmondesi

Being very close to Arkansas, I really would like to have one of those one day. It would certainly be a lot of fun to play with. Beautiful stone!

---

In your area, you are bound to find one turned up at garage sale or antique store. They are sort of a one trick pony, but they do what they do and me likes it! Not just for the nostalgia either, when water stones came out I never looked back, it does produce a smooth edge as a finisher, most forgiving but still sharp.

Edleblu,
You have some nice novaculite!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eleblu05

very nice looking translucent. i finished mine starting on a broken in dmt 325 once it was flat i moved on to 800g wet&dry on my granite block then 1500 g and 2000g then finished witha 3/4x3/4x3in square tool steel block . i used that steel block like a prep stone to smooth out any scratchs left behind . i rubbed the stone until i got a black swarf all over the stone and repeated 3 times. this will insure that your stone is at its smoothest . to see if you are there put your stone up to your eye you should see the stone reflecting the light the surface should be like a mirror when looking at the stone at an angle. just like a jnat .the stone that went through this process is the stone to the right .

---

Pretty much the same routine here but I used stones at the 1k and 2k level then used the back of my Jeweler's block after cleaning and lapping for weeks on the DMT's...
I tried the Soap rountine then I tried Glycerin but ended up back at Honing Oil again...

yeah thats important gssixgun a good thin oil i use sewing machine oil (white diamond) to achieve the best edge from novaculite stones thin oil gives the best results and here is another translucent a multi color one enjoy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kingfish

In your area, you are bound to find one turned up at garage sale or antique store. They are sort of a one trick pony, but they do what they do and me likes it! Not just for the nostalgia either, when water stones came out I never looked back, it does produce a smooth edge as a finisher, most forgiving but still sharp.

Edleblu,
You have some nice novaculite!!!

---

yes i do like my novaculite!

Hey hey that one in the bottom left corner looks like you stole one of mine, I am checking when I get home :) :rofl2:

crap incriminating evidence i plead the fifth lol

I should get my translucent Arkansas stone this week. I was at work and noticed one being abused very badly in the calibration dept. The QA guy uses it to clean up tooling gauges. I noticed it had never been properly taken care of as it had metal streak throughout. I asked him what he cleans them with and he tells me he just orders a new one when they get broken or stop honing well.

He has a broken one somewhere he said he would give me... The feel of it is unique almost like glass but with a touch of softness. Very beautiful stone...

The google research I did claims they are the finest natural stone in The world.. Any clue what grit it would be?

I think if you pulled particle size out of a translucent arkansas, you'd find it to be at least several microns. I have seen 4000 grit thrown around, but as soon as you start talking about grit numbers, the next question is "which schedule, CAMI, JIS, ...?"

The finest stones I've seen in terms of particle size for natural stones are the superfine japanese stones. I haven't tried a lot of european stuff.

I don't know why there are folks who call arkansas stones the finest stones in the world, unless by fine, they mean "nicest".

But I like them - especially on carbon steel, regardless of whether or not there are finer stones. They reward technique and experimentation with results and versatility, and they are "steel savers" once they've settled in, very conservative with metal removal.