Thread: Don't Laugh - Ok Do Laugh

What kind of hones were they using? Were they similar to yours?

I have no idea. I just went to the counter and dropped off my razor. I do know that this is a place barbers had theirs honed because I got the name of the place from a barber shop I had called out of the yellow pages.

Was the "broken down barber" that recommended your hones from that shop?

No, the stones were not recommended by a barber but it was a place I found when I moved to Arkansas and I asked the counterman for stones for sharpening a razor. That is what he sold me. It was not a barber supply but some sort of hardware or tool shop as I recall. I was young, naive and clueless.

The reason there isn't much enthusiasm for Arkansas stones in this otherwise hone-addicted place is that they're not fine enough to compete with other finishing stones, and yet they're too slow for workhorse mid-range honing.

That said, if you do decide (out of say nostalgia for your broken-down barber friend ) that you want to give them a try you should talk to Mparker, an extremely experienced member here who has his own reasons for being fond of Arks and has put the pink translucent to good use.

Another thing about Arks – and someone please correct me if I'm wrong – I don't think the hard white and black Arks are really meant to form a honing sequence. Their grits might suggest a sequence (~1200, ~4-5K respectively I think), but neither is really a cutter. They're both polishers, just for different types of tools: the hard white for woodworking tools and kitchen knives, the black for dental and surgical instruments.

Soft arks & washeetas (misspelled to get around the freakin' censor) on the other hand are thought of as cutters but even those are pretty damn slow for my tastes and temperament, and on high-Rockwell razors – fuhggeddaboutit.