Thread: Arkansas stones grit?

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.

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

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

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.