Thread: Yet, another Black Surgical question

Hey Gents,

Sorry, I know the Black Surgical Stone topic has been beaten to death, but I have an 8", very clean, smooth and level stone that I use to put a final edge on my high carbon broad heads in the fall - water only.

I just want to stay ahead on edge maintenance on a newly honed DOVO, not create a new bevel. Can I use this stone with confidence (although slow), then linen, then leather to "touch up" the razor once a month or two?

Thanks,

Alpsman.

Hi Alpsman,

I don't have any experience with the stone
you're talking about, but in general going
to the stone once a month seems like a bit
much to me, given sufficient daily stropping
on the linen and leather.

I don't think there's any benefit to being
`ahead of the curve' so to speak, I would
just hone it when necessary -- that is, as
soon as you detect that the edge is pulling
more than you'd like.

- Scott

There are some people that touch up regularly on Barber's hones but I am not familiar enough to tell you about the Arkansas stone and whether it would work to do the same...

I did re-freshes on one stone for years, with two razors before I finally found SRP and actually learned about "Honing" then I caught HAD RAD RRD SAD BAD and every other Shave Flu out there

I will say this, this is the second time I have read about your desire to try that stone, so it looks as though it is "written in the stone" so to say...
You will never know until you try it, it will either work or you will be sending the razor out for a re-hone

LOL! Big time observant! Actually, I just won a razor last night on the bay that might need a touch up, and I really don't want to spend any more $ on shaving for a while. So, I was hoping to kill two birds with one "stone" . . . . he he , sorry . . . Anyway, as soon as I get this razor In the mail I should know if I can touch it up or need to send it off to Lynn.

Thanks!

I don't have those stones (well one in the refurbish box) but I do use the same stones for my kitchen knives. As stated above try it out and see where it stands, you never know till you try.

I lucked out by getting my grandfathers coticule so I do now have a razor only hone

I think the surgical Black Arkansas is usually rated at about 6k on the Japanese scale. I've used one followed by chrome oxide (or newspaper) with good results. They do cut slower than most other options.

Glen said on his message the easiest and cheapest way will be to use barber hones which one depends on you. You can by swaty 2 line will do the job, c-mon, or want to go more expensive you can buy double duck dry hone or you want to go more then that 00frictionate if this will not satisfies you then move on to norton razor hone by the way last one will cost you around 300-500. good luck
hope this helps.

I have a black and a translucent. I have used them on straights. They work, and they won't hurt anything since they cut slow. I am not that experienced with them, but I would be surprised if you'll get good shaves just from these. Hopefully someone can add to this.

Olivia said in another thread, "I'm a great friend of the translucent white Arkansas as a finisher." Maybe she will be here later and tell us how it's done!

I say try it out, I touched up a Robeson Shuredge this morning with a 1x3 translucent. I did circular strokes with water then finished up with x pattern strokes using lather on the stone. I then did 75 on both the leather and linen. It is not a super duper sharp edge but it is an edge that is very easy on my face.

The razor was already shaving sharp when I started, I would not want to do any metal removal with an Arkansas stone.

I would make sure the edges of the stone are not square before trying.

Charlie

I sometimes finish with a 8 X 3 black surgical Arkansas stone. It is a really sl000000000000wwwwww finisher, but appreciably increases the sharpness of the blade after honing on a coticule. For an experiment, I rubbed the Arkansas (unknown grit but very hard-harder than any of my translucent Arkansas stones) with my coticule slurry stone. To my surprise, I got a nice slurry, visible metal removal and a sharp edge quickly. Have not tried to duplicate this since. YMMV.