Arkansas stones for honing?

[Curnutte]

I have Washita, Soft Arkansas, and Hard Arkansas stones that I use to sharpen my woodworking chisels. Would they be suitable for honing my razors? I am careful to have them dressed once a year or so to be sure they are absolutely flat. Also, I have used them with honing oil. If they are suitable for my razors, should I continue to use them with oil? I'm not a newbie at honing my chisels and I get very good edges with these stones. But I'm willing to get other stones for my razors if you think I need to.
Thanks,
Bill

[hendersr]

I have a hard black arkansas that i have tried to hone razors with and it hasnt been very successful. My understanding is that its a bit of a hit and miss affair.

[JimmyHAD]

Hi Bill, Welcome to SRP. I have some Arkies that I use for pocket knives, including a Washita, a soft and a hard Arkansas. I've not tried mine on razors since I have waterstones which most find preferable of straight razors. There have been some members who reported getting decent, even good results, using Arkansas stones to hone their razors but not many. Some may chime in after awhile. The SRP Wiki has hone comparisons, and article called 'Which Hone Do I Need' among other info. Take a look at that here if you want some quick info.

[DaveW]

I haven't used surgical black or hard translucent, but I have a couple of translucents.

If they are freshly lapped, they will be too coarse for a razor. You want them to settle in on the surface and be clean and worn - novaculite breaks down or wears off (whatever it does to cut less aggressively) pretty quickly. There is a HUGE difference between a fresh stone and one with wear, like maybe a factor of 3 or 4 in fineness.

I don't get good results with my norton HTA, but by the looks of it, I don't think it's a cut piece of natural stone. I do have a natural cut piece of stone that's at least twice as fine (also translucent) that I'm sure I could shave with fine, especially if I followed the shave with any powder of any type (i generally go straight from hone to plain leather with no other molestation to the edge).

I know of someone who says they've shaved 40+ years with a straight razor and they use a hard black ark (that they intentionally never lap, and it has settled into a very fine slow cutting stone, I'd guess) and a horse butt strop and nothing else.

In general, there are so many other fine stones out there that have a much finer grit to start off with that I don't think it's worth the trouble. I probably wouldn't fiddle with a soft or hard white non-translucent stone, they're too coarse. I'm sure with enough tinkering you could figure something out, but you could get a better edge off of a better stone a minute later with a lot less effort.

[MinATX]

There is a famous woodworker who puts diamond paste on his black arkansas when he wants to put a super sharp edge on his chisels.
I haven't tried it myself but it's something to think about if you don't want to invest in new stones.
Or get a Norton combo stone. I love my Nortons.

[WJF]

Hello Bill and welcome to SRP,

There are many places here on SRP to learn about different hones and stones. Take your time and check them all out.

There are many folks here that hone all the time and are experts on hones and honing. I will jump in here because your question was about Arkansas stones and that is primarily what I use. I do not hone for anyone else so I have no feedback but my own experience and I happen to get by fine with a surgical black Arkansas. Keep in mind that all natural stones can and will vary in many ways. The surgical black is much harder and finer than the Washita or Hard Arkansas and I use mine for razors only.

My stone was flat when I received it and I just scrubbed it with soap and water and used water on it from then on. I use wet-or-dry paper (1000 and 1500) on granite to set bevels and do repair work. I suppose your other Arkies would work fine for that. Now I must say here that I purchased a combo Coticle/BBW slurry stone and I will sometimes use that to make a slurry on the sbA and it works very well for honing. I start with a clean stone and make a coticle slurry and hone until the slurry begins to turn gray and then dilute with more water until the edge looks right under magnification. I then clean the stone and use water only. The edges usually polish up very well. I know that I might come under fire here, but sometimes I use the stone dry for touch-up. I always scrub with soap and water to clean it afterwards. I lap the stone on the granite with wet-or-dry paper, but so far it has not been dished or cupped so lapping was just a cursory swipe or two to make sure.

As I said before I have no other feedback but my own face and it is very happy with the edges that I get. Of course I also strop with linen and leather before I shave. Good luck.

Bill