Found this at an estate sale

The stone seems brand new and I can't detect any sort of oil ever being used on it. I'd like to experiment with it but don't want to ruin the sticker. Was wondering if I should clear nail polish the sticker or remove it. I'm thinking i could extract it pretty cleanly with a new razor blade and re glue it in place if I ever decide to get rid of it. Not sure how common these are but it's a real nice translucent ark that the guy let me have for a couple bucks. The stone is pretty small but I bet I could do some finishing strokes or circles on it. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4baaf68706.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9f8ddd9780.jpg


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I would think if you gave it the Jnat treatment and lacquered the stone you'd be fine. A burnished Arkansas stone is one of my favorite finishers. Nice find!

Nice score, in great shape too!

That almost looks like a translucent as you say. Take it into a dark room and shine a flashlight or headlamp up against it and you will know instantly. I have one almost exactly like it (but in a wooden box), with the same smoothed surface and square-chamfered edges and corners. Whether hard (as labeled) or even translucent, it should leave a wicked sharp edge (albeit with hundreds of circles, x-strokes, etc.)!

Once you seal up your sticker (per the instructions of others-I've never had to do that), you can try water with a drop of dish soap, mineral (or even baby oil), Smith's, Ballistol, or my latest favorite, WD-40 for a honing cushion and swarf carrier. 2 or 3 drops of oil on that size stone should be plenty. Take it as far as you can go with an 8k or 12k Naniwa or similar first, as the fine Arks are more burnishers/polishers than heavy cutters. If you nail it, you will be astonished at how sharp and smooth your resulting shave is. Tell us how it goes.

P.S.: If you burnish one side before-hand with chef's knives, chisels, putty-knives, etc., it will get even finer! Marshal put me on to this. Then you can start on your "rough" (unburnished) side and finish on your fine side.

By the way, if you got that for "a couple of bucks," you know you stole it, right!:p.

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By the way, if you got that for "a couple of bucks," you know you stole it, right!:p.[/QUOTE]


Heh. Na it was still a steal at $2. Though I didn't know how much the guy was gonna want for it. His wife didn't know what it was and gave it to me for $2. And yes it's translucent for sure. The box may not be original to this stone since I recall it saying HB which I assume means hard black. But what do I know.

I was at woodcraft today and they had a surgical black 6x3 or maybe it was 8x3 for like $55. Was tempted to pick it up but something told me that there's no way it would be flat and it would take me a lifetime to lap.



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Yeah, I got an 8x3 surgical black at bestsharpeningstones.com early this summer and love it! It was pretty close to flat, but yeah, it's a bear to do any real lapping on the arks.

The designation "back in the day" was Hard Arkansas for a Norton Translucent. They didn't have all of the names we do today- soft, hard, translucent, ect. Some of the stones we call Surgical Black were sold as touch stones to jewelers. Many people see "Hard Arkansas and don't understand if it is Norton or Pike then it is most likely a "translucent". It's all kinds of confusing.

So in other words your stone would be what we call a translucent Arkansas today and nothing like the Hard Arkansas designation of today as it will be capable of a very fine edge. Nice score!! Especially for $2!!!! Even $20 would have been a good deal.

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Originally Posted by Steel

The designation "back in the day" was Hard Arkansas for a Norton Translucent. They didn't have all of the names we do today- soft, hard, translucent, ect. Some of the stones we call Surgical Black were sold as touch stones to jewelers. Many people see "Hard Arkansas and don't understand if it is Norton or Pike then it is most likely a "translucent". It's all kinds of confusing.

So in other words your stone would be what we call a translucent Arkansas today and nothing like the Hard Arkansas designation of today as it will be capable of a very fine edge. Nice score!! Especially for $2!!!! Even $20 would have been a good deal.

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Yep, back in the day there were 2 classifications: Soft and Hard. If memory serves, Soft ranged from what we recognize now as soft up through what we call hard stones on the lower half of the density range. From the latter half of what is now called a Hard Arkansas stone's density range and beyond they were just called Hard stones. So an older Hard Arkie could've been anything from a dense Hard stone up to a True Hard/Translucent/Surgical stone.

That's really a nice clean one!! Great find!

Regarding Ark stones in general, why do people recommend to break it in with a chisel or whatnot? What's wrong with just the regular surface texture? I wanna at least flatten this little booger but I'm debating on what grit to use.

Heck of a deal for two bucks!


Mike

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Originally Posted by nuggetz

Regarding Ark stones in general, why do people recommend to break it in with a chisel or whatnot? What's wrong with just the regular surface texture? I wanna at least flatten this little booger but I'm debating on what grit to use.

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There's a trade off. A rougher surface will cut faster, but not as fine. The smoother you burnish/polish the stone, the slower it gets but it also becomes increasingly fine. So there's nothing wrong with the surface texture, it just depends on what you're trying to achieve with the stone.

My suggestion is check to see how flat it is with a straight edge first. Flattening a Translucent Arkansas is a nightmare. I spent countless hours working a 12" x 2.5" stone over with just about every flattening method imaginable. I even transitioned over to loose grit SiC starting at 80 on a glass plate for a few hours. Eventually I gave up, called it flat enough and proceeded to burnish and polish the stone. The stone still has a convex surface, but it's close enough to flat and still imparts a hell of an edge. Loose grit SiC from gotgrit.com is the way to go with Arkies. They eat diamond plates and sand paper alive.

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Originally Posted by nuggetz

Regarding Ark stones in general, why do people recommend to break it in with a chisel or whatnot? What's wrong with just the regular surface texture? I wanna at least flatten this little booger but I'm debating on what grit to use.

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Arkansas stones are really a bear to flatten, especially the hard ones like yours. Don't use a diamond plate or lapping stone as an Ark will wear it out really fast. Do a grid pattern test first to see if it even needs it

Thanks Marshal. Since the stone is so small I think it would lap up quite fast. I lapped a similar sized SB Ark and I know it can take some time. I can tell it's not perfectly flat but its very close. I have every grit of wet dry sandpaper and one of those granite lapping plates.

One thing that I've always wondered is how did Norton decide on how smooth or rough to make the factory surface? I'd like to match what it feels like now after a lapping. This stone is totally new. Looks like it's been sitting in that box all this time. No oil, no scratches - nothing.

Still need to decide on what I wanna do about the sticker.

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Originally Posted by nuggetz

Thanks Marshal. Since the stone is so small I think it would lap up quite fast. I lapped a similar sized SB Ark and I know it can take some time. I can tell it's not perfectly flat but its very close. I have every grit of wet dry sandpaper and one of those granite lapping plates.

One thing that I've always wondered is how did Norton decide on how smooth or rough to make the factory surface? I'd like to match what it feels like now after a lapping. This stone is totally new. Looks like it's been sitting in that box all this time. No oil, no scratches - nothing.

Still need to decide on what I wanna do about the sticker.

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If the stone is close then an option would be just to leave it with the factory finish and begin to use it. I am not sure about how Norton did it back then but I know that Dans will take the grit that has been broken down on other stones and use that to flatten their true hard stones. So it isn't a known grit. Just a loose grit that is progressively broken down.

As for the sticker, it has been suggested that you could seal it on like a Jnat and another option I have seen people use is to lift it and put it on the inside lid of the box. Just another option.