Thread: Yet, another Black Surgical question

In the last episode of "Surgical Black Arkansas", we left Croaker after he had honed his trusty razor for 200 passes on a superfine surgical black Arkansas 8X3 stone, then stropped lustily for 50 passes on linen followed by the finishing 50 passes on leather. Time for the shave report:

The blade was appreciably sharper than after my coticule, but tugged more and felt less comfortable during the shave. The closeness was no better than if I had just used my coticule, and the process took about 10 X longer. So, I may sell my Arkansas too. And it's gigantic big brother. I have what may be the worlds largest translucent Arkansas hone, weighing several pounds. Lap that one! Pics will follow when I return from my current road trip to Scottsdale AZ. Also I got real lucky at an antique store yesterday afternoon, and acquired a good size Belgian double sided coticule/BBW, plus an ancient Wade & Butcher wedge with a huge humpback. Pics to follow on that one too, in a different forum.
Good night, all!

I finished the same razor I had used with a tranlucent arkansas with the black one I have and it seems it is a little less smooth and less sharp. I used the black one after a shapton 12k pro and finished with plain leather, just as I had with the translucent. But, I have only honed with it once, and there could be a lot of reasons for the results I got. On the other hand, the results seem consistent with what I have heard about the performance of both and the conditions under which I shave are pretty much the same on a day to day basis.

But, I have to say that it did shave, so I guess it could be used for touch ups. I would imagine that you could get better results with a different stone, though. The translucent seemed to be a step up from the black in sharpness and smoothness. Personally, I get better results from using the shapton and a coticle.

Originally Posted by crazycliff200843

But, I have to say that it did shave, so I guess it could be used for touch ups. I would imagine that you could get better results with a different stone, though. The translucent seemed to be a step up from the black in sharpness and smoothness. Personally, I get better results from using the shapton and a coticle.

Thanks for the test results. That is similar to my experience.

Here is something else to try when you want to experiment more. Lap your 12K with the translucent to generate a 12k slurry. Then hone on the translucent with the 12k slurry. I tried this today (10k slurry on a translucent) and found the results interesting. It seemed to help a problem razor of mine that was not responding well to finishing with waterstones.