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Thread: Arkansas stones grit?

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    Senior Member eleblu05's Avatar
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    what type of hard ark do you have an older ark or is it new

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    "We are the knights who say, "nee!" Yochatman's Avatar
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    I frequently use my Surgical Black Ark with a natural dish soap as a finisher. I find it leaves a wicked sharp edge that is surprisingly smooth! While the natural Arks are american standard lower grit, the Surgical Black and Translucent act better than my c12k. But I don't like using them after water stones, for some reason they don't react well that way for me. I like to use the natural Soft, Hard, Surgical rotation.

    Now, I must say that you can easily shave off the Hard Ark, but it won't be as comfortable. I don't have any experience with the translucent, but if it is anything like my Surgical, it will polish the metal nicely, just be very careful as it is really easy to kill an edge... One misstep and your whole bevel is gone!
    "Charlotte meetup," lets shoot for April 13-14 or 20-21. What say you? PM me to get the ball rolling! And may your face always be BBS!

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    Senior Member blabbermouth
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    There is a mismatch in the groove shape for a waterstone if you try to follow it by a fine oilstone. Alundum / Alumina and SiC waterstones cut narrow deep grooves. Following a medium waterstone with a fine oilstone is like digging a bunch of lines with a pick-axe and then trying to remove them with a snow shovel.

    You literally have to make a lateral jump, which sort of cancels out the purpose.

    I get super results by taking a large hard ark and keeping one side agitated and fresh and letting the other side break in, and then following the fine side with a translucent arkansas.

    regarding the comment above, if they are used in progression with their own type, they're plenty fast. The mismatch of groove types causes problems if you don't do a whole progression, unless you do the typical suggestion here which is to get the edge sharp with your finest stone and then make a lateral jump over.

    They will not be that excited about anything with carbides in it, they definitely prefer simpler steels.

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    Senior Member blabbermouth Theseus's Avatar
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    I've found that you can bridge the gap, so to speak, between artificial waterstones and Arkies by using a barbers hone in between.

  5. #5
    Senior Member eleblu05's Avatar
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    i use water stones before my ark with no problem in fact its faster and all around a better way to go 1k,2k,5k,8k,12k,16k, black/translucent

  6. #6
    Senior Member blabbermouth
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    That'd definitely be a lateral move or better. You just don't want to go from a 2k synthetic to a translucent arkansas, despite the hard ark being no finer than a 2k synthetic, its grooves are a lot shallower.

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