You need to tell us how it shaved :) Are have you shaved with it yet ?
Printable View
Cotis no longer needed. It's all about the ARTICLE.
judging by hot trending wet shaving trends, this wave of inspiration should last a SOLID two weeks (well deserved), at which point in time someone will figure out how to tweek a razor's finish on fresh pavement, and everyone will go into the homedepot buying tar by the gallon. And you know what? I'd be there.
I see :rofl2: Well you need to give a report because I am curious . My self and another guy used just the hard Arkie as a finisher and shave with it. To my surprise it shave the whiskers well but it felt kind of scratchy. The after shave burned but my face felt comfortable all day. I still don't recommend it though. My trans makes the blade feel much better shaving. You will know it does good if you face feels good right after the shave and hours latter the skin still feels comfortable. You are using a slurry right ???
The final phase was a thin shave lather. But I used 2 different slurries (coticule first then PHIG rubbing stone) to get it to that point.
I have tried experimenting with different hones. I will finish with a 00 frictionite and shave. Then I will finish with the Ruby Red and shave with it . I found that can't tell a difference so I tried to use Skin Brazer after shave for feed back, but that doesn't really work either. I have not found anything bad. I don't use a slurry so I'm waiting hear what you think. :)
Won't be getting rid of the coticule. It's a natural and the BBW with slurry on the backside is a great bevel setter. Also provides a very sharp but soft edge on the Pumas.
Well - that's two for two. The first stroke, the Boker was all... here's that keen I'm so well known for off the stones. But it subsided almost mid stroke and was gone by the second. It was a great shave! Two for two.
The system or sheer luck? I don't know. But my Boker shaved like a champ and the crisp keenness was traded in for a smooth shave.
LOL - well, maybe. I've done my share of two week trends, but this is making me pretty happy right now. I think I might finish all my blades like this for a while. I'm not in a rush to buy new stones anymore.
How about just one of many... OOM for short.
Cotarkle Cotarkule Cotslurrcule
I been reading this thread and I don't really comprehend the purpose. Are you trying to make a Hard Ark a one stone solution by using coarser slurries? Seems it would be cheaper just to buy a $50 JNat. A black or trans ark is a fantastic finisher all by itself. Why rough it up to use slurries on? What's the goal? Just curious.
I understand the desire/need to experiment, I really do. But if you have a decent coticle with slurry stone for dilucot to 8K+, and the black/trans Ark for finishing, I don't see why one would want to put garnet slurry on the finish stone. Why would you need to speed up the finisher? Isn't that what the coticule was for? Seems like a step back. Is the Ark with slurry faster than the coticule with slurry?
Well, the original topic was regarding a soft Arkansas stone - which is the coarsest readily available Arkansas stone as Washita have become a rare find of late. So the point is to speed up the bevel setter - not the finisher.
As for using coticule slurry on a Black/Translucent, think of it as a way to one stone hone with just that rock. Which you would do for the same reason you would one-stone hone on any other hone. And not everyone has a coticule to transition from. I have 3 translucents, no coticule. Just a small coticule rubbing stone.
That makes sense. I've only followed patches of this thread. And I may be convoluting this thread with the other ongoing Ark thread. Sorry.
No problem, I'm happy to clarify when and where I can.
Attachment 238939Attachment 238940Attachment 238940
Well, today I received my Soft Arkansas stone, 6 x 3, from Dan's Whetstone. It came in a wooden box that fit perfectly. The customer service, before I continue, was top notch. Very personable people who made me feel comfortable with my purchase, even though it was a small one compared to other models. I chose a half hour later to order a 6 x 3 surgical black—and I may pick up a nice, cheap pocket translucent stone from them. Wonderful people. Really.
I grabbed a beater Gold Dollar I practiced with when I was seriously new to honing, which has an uneven, but not necessarily "impossible" bevel, and began to hone. I should note that in the last week my honing skills have improved TREMENDOUSLY. Many many breakthroughs this week. For example, I finally learned how to max out my coticule, CONSISTENTLY, without any so-called tricks. (dilute often because of auto-slurry, not the slurry you see; I tried this with a BBW and got the exact same result in the exact same time, go figure).
The slurry building was dead easy. I built a nice, thick, milk slurry. I'm convinced it wasn't necessary. I have a few coticule slurry stones I keep in a miniature domino snap-case. Stones from La Veinette, LVRR, two combos, e.t.c.
—————————
Like many have said, the blade began to quickly stick to the hone. Maybe about 20 strokes or so. Very perceptible suction. Undercut was gorgeous. I wasn't even using pressure.
I took a good number of laps before I diluted. I wasn't worried about auto-slurry here, so I took my time, great feedback. Really enjoy this stone.
Down to misty slurry, I began to dilute every 8-10 strokes, as I would on a coticule. Not a finger drop, I'm talking about either dipping the razor in a cup of water or sprinkling a good amount. Really spreading those garnets out. And x stroke, and dilute, and x stroke, and dilute.
HHT 2 off the stone. A bevel setting stone. Unreal. Again, I didn't even use pressure.
Off to the coticule!
dilucot procedure. I actually started with a milky slurry, crazy, but I was just having fun in the mud! Same procedure here, except I diluted often as I had finished on the arkansas. And x stroke, and dilute, and x stroke, and dilute.
HHT 3 on some parts of the blade.
FINAL REMARKS
I won't be needing a bevel setting stone, as I do like the allure of naturals and this one fits so perfectly before a coticule or BBW that I don't see (gulp) a chosera purchase in my immediate future. (I'll probably make up a reason to buy one in the future).
Still, I need to hone some other blades before I declare this stone a holy grail in the progression. I didn't have to remove much better on this guy, I knew that because the swarf wasn't crazy. I didn't use pressure. For example, if this was a NEW gold dollar, I'm not sure what would happen. Obviously I'd use more pressure to get into that heel and remove the amount of steel GDs are known to require.
Good stuff though. Thank YOU OP! This stone knocked it out of the park for me! I think, for restores, or for the tough guys, a rough stone might be in order, but this bad boy has a permanent seat in my honing briefcase.
I have every reason to believe this is a method worth pursuing. I achieved a VERY nice, polished edge tonight.
Stay tuned for shave results!
Nice looking stone!
Honestly calling the Soft Ar Kansas stone 'soft' is a complete misnomer. It's soft in relation to a hard/black/translucent Arkansas, but it's still technically novaculite, and still very hard and abrasion resistant. You might be able to work up a slurry with a diamond plate, eventually. But I wouldn't expect the diamond plate to last long with that kind of abuse.
So, just to update this whole thing....
I've noticed soft arks, at least, mine, tends to clog and glaze VERY quickly, to the point where it wouldn't cut as fast. It's as if the minute I took a razor to it, I got me some serious burnishing going on. I've since relapped it, but coticule slurry seems to bugger things up. A wonderful experiment for sure, I'm not sure of it's repeat-ability. I can't put it into the right terms, but the cutting power is off now...
Has anyone taken a SOFT ARK slurry to a soft ark? I feel like that would speed up the stone and give it it's own cutting power without glazing.
I have another natural bevel setter incoming, but tonight's project, taking the hack saw to a wet soft ark, and seeing what some slurry can do.
I might try dmt 325 slurry first.
I have. It works and works well. You have to be careful not to press too hard or get too aggressive making slurry or you will have a large bit of slurry and it is like honing with a 1 karat diamond rolling around under the blade. Not pleasant. But if you take your time building the slurry it seems to speed things up and dilutes down although I doubt it is very friable. I have found that a freshly agitated soft or Washita is an EXTREMELY fast cutter so I refresh the surface instead of building a slurry now.
Try it many ways and see which you like the best. Manipulating the pressure is also a huge factor with these stones. Gradually getting lighter pressure in lieu of diluting a slurry. These stones are fun to play around with. They have amazed me so many different times by experimenting.
Well, I noted on mine the pores are now filled with coticule slurry. I think those pores have a good deal to do with the cutting power of the stone. Until those pores get cleared out, I think it will stay a little on the slow side. On the other hand I could be wrong, and the surface might just need a good roughing up to restore it's cutting potential. But my soft Ark doesn't seem any worse for the wear after honing several razors on it. I think it is a touch slower than when I first got it, however the last time I took a razor to it the stone could still joint and set a bevel in 15-20 minutes, so I'm content with it's performance.
Edit: Almost forgot the reason I looked this thread up! I got the soft coticule rubbing stone that I traded out with SolitarySoldier - he wanted a hard one like the one I started with, and I was curious what a softer rubbing stone would be like - and finally gave it a test. I've got to say the slurry from this stone seemed remarkably fast, either that or I'm getting much more proficient. I didn't time it to see how long it would take, but I would say it took 60 passes, then 2 sets of 20/10/5/3/2 strokes to get rid of the 1K stria, and 4 dilutions with 1 set between them to get it polished to around an 8K level. From there I flipped the stone to the burnished side and did a few sets on plain water.
The shave was incredibly smooth, but I guess that wouldn't be a surprise for a translucent ark. I was tempted to use it for setting a bevel, but that will probably be another project for another day.
Attachment 240641
Semi related side note: I've determined that 6"x2" is about as small as I'd care to go with a slurry stone, and 3" wide would be MUCH preferred. 8"x3" is optimal. Anything shorter than 6" long isn't that great for the honing style I use and I'd never be able to keep slurry on the stone. They're great for when you want to hold the hone in your palm and do water only I guess, but it's fairly rare that I want to do that.
Ah man that's awesome, congrats on a good shave and good honing job.
I'm glad I reached out on this thread — I can confirm the coticule slurry really filled in those pores. I actually forgot to clean in last time I honed on it, so I'm not sure if this thing can be cleaned out. Seems really in there.
I can confirm though re-lapping this thing on 80 grit sic really kicked things up a notch.
I just ordered a levant bevel setting stone from Peter, a member here, and look forward to trying a different natural bevel setter. I was pretty happy with the soft ark, but I want a little more.
I also want to try the Pyrenees stone. From the looks of it, the levant seems to be a sandstone, whereas the Pyrenees is a sandstone/slate mix. I think the Pyrenees with matching slurry might be a good option. I've read it's actually faster with slurry than a Naniwa SS 1k. Pretty impressive. I saw some scope shots that looked polished if not a bit scratchier than a Shapton 1K. I'll make a report of it on another thread.
Soft arks were good. You guys doing heavy lifting with this? Chips?
I've got a set of pocket knife Arks at work that see use on those square 'razor blades' they put in sticker scrapers. They're labeled 'Medium' and 'Fine' which I've discovered means 'Hard' and 'Translucent.' I've taken some small dings out of those blades with that set, but I don't know if I'd be willing to set down with a soft Ark and do that kind of work on a razor. I do that at work because I don't have anything more coarse there, and the edge doesn't have to shave my face so I can get a little lazy and still have a better edge than they come out of the box lol.
I do have a pair of flea-bay razors that need an edge put on, maybe I'll see if the soft Ark can handle that in a reasonable amount of time. I'm not holding my breath on that though, the last one took the better part of an hour on a Norton 1k.
Thanks guys for the suggestions.
I cleaned out my soft ark last night with a Brillo pad and some mineral spirits. Completely unclogged the hone after a quick session my read is the cutting power is totally restored.
Now, where to find a washita.......