Thread: Questions about dans hard Arkansas

As far as it goes, with my limited experience, I have found that I can get 40-50 shaves or more with a razor before having to touch it up on a stone, and then just a few passes on a barber hone will refresh the edge. As far as the Hard Ark goes, the one that you are getting off of Amazon is definitely not a finisher, sorry! I have a Soft Ark, a Hard Ark, and a Surgical Black... And it took me a long time with my hatchet to get the Surgical where I wanted it for finishing a razor! I also lapped the edges on the hones so that they slightly beveled away from the flat surface...

Now, that hard ark will definitely put a good bevel on the razor, and you could shave with it, but it would be like shaving straight off a 2000 - 4000 grit water stone!

Lastly, stropping is key. I have very coarse hair as well, and by the afternoon I have a shadow! (It's way better with a straight then it was when I was using cartridges though) But I can still get a lot of shaves out of a freshly hones razor. The key is to straighten out all the little areas where your hair has caused the metal to shift/bend, so I do a 30/50 Linen/Leather split, or sometimes if it's particularly difficult I will do a 50/100 Linen/Leather. 90% of the time that is all you should need, but in the off chance that you have put in some little chips in the bevel, your hard ark can take them out, but you would need something to finish the razor!

To all of those out there who are going to yell at me for this, I apologize, but it is possible to finish on most good barber hones. I will sometimes just for fun finish on a Swaty instead of my Surgical Ark or Norton 8000. I have not gotten a Coti or a Chinese 12k yet!

YMMV and this all IMHO.

Good Luck!!!

Thanks for the advice!! I guess I will hold on to this stone until I need it. Maybe for setting a bevel or something. I will keep looking for a good finisher. I really appreciate it!!

If it's a true hard, it still might be enough to polish a razor if you let it break in, you never know. It may just be a white or gray ark that has no translucence, but some of those can be very dense and fine.

I have had a bunch of different ark stones, and the dans stones I've gotten have been the finest I've had. I had a pink mottled soft arkansas that was finer than a hard ark that I got from another dealer.

If you let the surface of even a mediocre hard ark get plugged and don't get overzealous about cleaning out the pores, it will act like a fine stone.

But you still have the ability to scuff it with a diamond hone or coarse sandpaper and use it to cut a bevel on a razor, the underlying particles are fairly large.