Thread: Yet, another Black Surgical question

The black one should even be a bit harder than the translucent, isn't it?
I don't have a black one (yet), so I can only tell for the translucent.

So far its my best finisher after an Escher or a C12k.
Last week a customer told me about his shaving experience with a Dorko razor I just sold him.
He said its the sharpest blade he's ever seen (and he got some variety).
I can only rely on the customers and not test myself of course.

The stone works well with a bit of detergent or lather
(I always use home made glass cleaner made from detergent, alcohol and demineralized water)
and you need a good number of strokes (80 - 100) to get any effect. (When the lather turns grey)

Croaker I would not ruffle it up. Its really best when it shines.

Olivia,
I am not advising that the black Arkansas stone be added to anyone's honing series, but it did indeed help the edge on 2 razors I experimented with. Oddly enough, I used lather on the stone after the slurry, and it made the blade really hug the hone from suction, as you find with your detergent and alcohol mixture. That may have accounted for the increase in sharpness. I have noticed that using lather on a coticule, with no slurry, will still cause the lather to turn grey with metal particles. A soapy solution is great for honing, unless it soaks into your hone. That happened to my Nortons, and suds came out of my 4000 grit stone for a week! I don't use Nortons anymore because I get better results with my coticules, 12K Chinese, and Shapton. Thanks for sharing your experiences and technique. I don't really feel that Arkansas stones have much of a place in straight razor honing, after seeing the difference when I use a really excellent hone.

I have a translucent that I have used on only a couple of edges. I have yet to work with the black one I have as a finisher as I am of the impression that it is either of the same or lesser grit that the translucent. I could be wrong, though, as I have yet to use it.

I wouldn't use the translucent all by itself as a finisher. It took me hundreds of laps to get the edge I wanted off of it coming off of a dragon's tongue. I have used it on an edge finished with a shapton 12k pro, and it took much less laps. It did take away from the sharpness a little, but made the edge much smoother. Not as smooth as a coticle would have left it, but still much less harsh than the shapton. I would say it is somewhere around 10k in grit and very slow. If the black one is similar to the translucent, then you could probably use it to maintain an edge, but it would take more laps than a barbers hone.

Oh yes, after a Dragon's Tongue its almost senseless
but after a 12 k its at its right place.

OK, Science Time! (or my best version of it)
I did some experiments and took photos. First, I rubbed a Chinese 12k on my Black Arkansas under running water. No type of slurry developed, both stones are lapped well and very smooth. They stuck together a lot. Next. I took a Shapton 16k and did the same thing to both the 12k and Arkansas. A small amount of white slurry was raised on the Chinese stone, and almost none on the Arkansas. Finally, I did scratch tests on the Arkansas, Chinese 12k, and Translucent Arkansas using a steel safety pin. As you can see from the photos, there were barely visible scratches on the Black, slight scratching on the Translucent, and heavy scratching on the Chinese. My conclusion is that both my Black and Translucent Arkansas stones are harder than the supposedly 12K Chinese stone. I am going to do some honing experiments with all three stones to see which provides the sharpest edge, and which provides the best shave.

A swaty barber hone and a good strop will give you a long lasting edge for a long long time. You can also use a pasted strop with chromium oxide if you want, but the edge does hit a dull point after a while with the paste and will need to be honed.

What I did is bought a coticule and a belgian blue stone for touching up my razors. The bbw with slurry about 50 strokes and then diluting to just water for another 50 or so. Then the coticule with water. I think coticules are just awesome though. It's all about your tastes.

If you're a simple guy, with simply needs and want to get things done well but quickly, just got a barber's hone, do 5-10 passes on it and you'll keep your edge for a long time.

Originally Posted by Disburden

A swaty barber hone and a good strop will give you a long lasting edge for a long long time. You can also use a pasted strop with chromium oxide if you want, but the edge does hit a dull point after a while with the paste and will need to be honed.

What I did is bought a coticule and a belgian blue stone for touching up my razors. The bbw with slurry about 50 strokes and then diluting to just water for another 50 or so. Then the coticule with water. I think coticules are just awesome though. It's all about your tastes.

If you're a simple guy, with simply needs and want to get things done well but quickly, just got a barber's hone, do 5-10 passes on it and you'll keep your edge for a long time.

I agree with you that a coticule and a Swaty could be pretty much all you needed....most of the time. There are some troublesome razors that need something else to get them shave ready, and that leads to HAD!! You can't set a bevel on a damaged or seriously unevenly honed blade with a BBW, Swaty, or coticule, and for those situations you need some other options. (DMT, coarse hone, sandpaper etc).

I don't doubt that the arkansas stones are harder than the chinese, but I don't think a safety pin would put a scratch in either one of them. Are you sure that the line on the translucent isn't just the metal from the safety pin? It looks awfully dark to be a scratch.

Originally Posted by crazycliff200843

I don't doubt that the arkansas stones are harder than the chinese, but I don't think a safety pin would put a scratch in either one of them. Are you sure that the line on the translucent isn't just the metal from the safety pin? It looks awfully dark to be a scratch.

Good thought, crazycliff. I just got the translucent Arkansas stone out again, dark lines still on it, and was able to rub them off with my finger. Underneath both dark lines were faint white ones, which polished off with a cloth. I think the white lines were actual scratches, but just barely visible. The dark lines were metal, as you thought. The white lines on the Chinese stone are scratches. So, what is the "real" hardness of novaculite? It probably depends on the mineral outcropping where it was quarried, like Belgian coticules. I am guessing that my Black Arkansas might be greater than 16000 grit, since a Shapton was unable to raise a slurry on it. Diamond is the hardest substance on Earth!

Here's a Arkansas Stone Grade Table. The specific gravities seem interesting. I have a black and a pink translucent, both are slipstones. I always had the impression that the pink translucent is a bit finer than the surgical black. It's a close call though.