Thread: swaty vs surgical black arkansas

Has any one tried the surgical black arkansas stone offered by handamerican? How does this compared to the swaty which has enjoyed high reputation in this forum? Which one hones faster and which one produces a finer edge?
It is not easy to find a swaty in good shape on ebay so I would prefer to buy a new stone from handamerican if the arkansas is as good.
Thanks for your advice.

Originally Posted by tom tong

Has any one tried the surgical black arkansas stone offered by handamerican? How does this compared to the swaty which has enjoyed high reputation in this forum? Which one hones faster and which one produces a finer edge?
It is not easy to find a swaty in good shape on ebay so I would prefer to buy a new stone from handamerican if the arkansas is as good.
Thanks for your advice.

I own a black arkansas, and love it...but not for sharpening razors. Long before I began this obsession with straights, I was/am a woodworker and had a couple of arkansas stones. When I bought my first e-bay special, I brought it up to shaving sharpness using my arkansas stones, but it took a LONG time. After spending a bunch of time on these forums, I decided to purchase a 4K/8K combination Norton. Much faster cutting.

It is my understanding (I don't own one) that the swaty is for touching up an already shave sharp razor that has degraded just a bit. The Norton and other honing stones are for bringing razors up to shaving sharpness. I personally use my Norton and chinese waterstone (12K) to hone, and pasted leather for touchup of already shave ready blades. Others may have differing approaches. YMMV.
Hope this helps,
Ed

I also have tried the Arkansas stones on razors and will not do it again!

Forestry Prof has given you some good advice.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for your advise.
Does the 8K Norton produce an edge good enough to go to the pasted strop or do I need to buy a finer grit stone like the Chinese 12K or a Shapton 12K or 15K. What is your comments on the Shapton 12K or 15K as compared to the Chinese 12K - I know the Chinese 12K is much cheaper, consider money is not an issue, how about other aspects such as edge quality and speed'wise.

Thanks for your advise again.

well to muddy things up a bit further......I don't use the 8k side of my Norton. I dislike it for it's "gummy" feeling. I go from the 4k side to a Belgian blue, then to belgian yellow coticule, then to Shapton 15k. I am very impressed with the Shapton. For being such a fine grit, the stone still darkens quite rapidly, so I don't feel I need TOO many laps on it. After that, .25 micron paste. .......Jeff

I went from the 8000 to a 0.5 pasted paddle strop and it worked fine.
Then I bought the 12000 Chinese and follow that with the 0.5 abrasive.
It even better now. But....the chinese 12000 is very slow. I use 100 laps on that stone followed by 30+ on the 0.5.

I have no experience with the Shapton stones.

Hope this helps,

Originally Posted by tom tong

Has any one tried the surgical black arkansas stone offered by handamerican? How does this compared to the swaty which has enjoyed high reputation in this forum? Which one hones faster and which one produces a finer edge?
It is not easy to find a swaty in good shape on ebay so I would prefer to buy a new stone from handamerican if the arkansas is as good.
Thanks for your advice.

These are very different stones. The Swaty is a very fine hone (10-12K), while an Arkansas is a lot coarser. At the same time the Swaty is pretty fast for a hone that fine.

Joe, does the swaty compare to a Sharpton 12k or 15k in terms of effectiveness?

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

These are very different stones. The Swaty is a very fine hone (10-12K), while an Arkansas is a lot coarser. At the same time the Swaty is pretty fast for a hone that fine.

Originally Posted by jim28277

Joe, does the swaty compare to a Sharpton 12k or 15k in terms of effectiveness?

You're talking about two different animals. Those are fine finishing hones. The Swaty is for a good refresh touchup. It's 10-12K but quick, the waterstones are slower but give you the kind of control you need for a very fine edge.