Thread: Sugical Black Arkansas as Touch up Hone

Originally Posted by DaveW

That's what's meant. the particles in an arkansas hone are pretty large. You have to wear them so that they lose aggressiveness or they'll leave you with a coarse edge, and possibly a wire edge.

Cool. Once mine was flat I used a combination of my DMT / norton / SB Arkie to give me my SB's current finish (DMT to flatten norton, use norton 4k (then later 8k) on the ark, flatten norton on dmt, repeat several times.). Ate up some of the norton keeping that flat, but right or wrong, it's what I did.

Originally Posted by jeffzeitlin

OK I am curious about DaveW's comment - no lapping. How does that effect the honing of the razor. I lapped mine flat , but still have some grit marks below the surface. Are you saying it is OK to hone a straight on it without lapping? I have not yet tried a razor. I am not look forward to working out the grit marks below the surface to get a glass smooth working area. Is it necessary to to so or is being lapped flat OK or just no lapping??

yes you should lap your ark /sb most companys are cutting cost in producing these stones. the new arks are cut and ruff over to flaten them. best way i can explain this is they have a ruff skin like a norton 4/8k they have to be lapped. now it is true if you lap them they will be coarser and a little faster ,but lapping is just the first part of the prepping routine.after the stone is lapped flat then its on to/ what i use is a pocket translucent i rub the stone down until its smooth then on to a piece of w-1 steel to smooth the stone over once finshed the stone should have some reflective quality the stone will be alot slower and will produce a fine edge!

I lapped mine up to 1500 grit then took a big old cleaver to it to help along with break in. She's about as smooth as glass now.

This stuff makes me feel like a piker, but here's my two cents. I tried using black and translucent Arkansas stones, but was never happy with the results.
Sooooooo, I picked up a Swaty hone off eBay, and used it with the soapy water that resulted from half filling a just emptied bottle of liquid hand soap.
The results were like night and day, and my razors run better than ever. Just sayin'.