Thread: Go straight from 8k translucent arkansas to crox paddle?

Well after quite a while using my DE razors, I have finally returned to my dovo out of sheer curiosity. I bought it new and used it a few times and found the shave to be fairly rough so I placed in a drawer to sit for the past year. After tooling through this awesome forum, I finally want to hone her up and get her shaving smooth!

My equipment: lapped translucent Arkansas stone and a handing strop. Just recently ordered a 2-sided bench strop with .5 micron crox but have not received them yet.

Now, I have heard that the translucent Arkansas stones are in the 8-10k range. And the the crox is about 30k. My question is, is it alright to go from the translucent Arkansas directly to the crox and get a decent shave or do I need an intermediate grit to fully appreciate the fine grit of the crox?

Thanks for the help, hope Im not noobing up the forum to much

Welcome Back
I am afraid you will try and have a bad experience again.
My advise will be send your Blade to sharpen by Pro.
This will help you tremendously.
1 you will know how properly honed blade should shave.
2. you will have comfortable shave
3 it will guide you in your following shaves.
Lastly be patient you will not get IN YOUR early use as good as shaves you got from DE . it takes time and patience. GL

About your questions . No one knows about your arkansas and how it really will act.
chro2 is not sharpening substance it is for polishing (smoothing edge).

Welcome to SRP. I'm in agreement with what hi_bud_gl said as to sending the blade out to a pro honer. You can find members who perform that service here in the SRP Classifieds. If you've got honing experience you might want to give the arky a try but they are known to be slow cutters with straight razors and even with the smoothing effect of the chrom-ox it would probably not be as smooth and sharp as a razor honed with a waterstone progression.

I agree with both of the above posters. Send the razor to a pro. Then you will have a basis for future comparison.
Waterstones are a better bet than the Arkansas stones when it come to straight razors.

Originally Posted by smoothfacedprince

.....
Now, I have heard that the translucent Arkansas stones are in the 8-10k range. And the the crox is about 30k. My question is, is it alright to go from the translucent Arkansas directly to the crox and get a decent shave or do I need an intermediate grit to fully appreciate the fine grit of the crox?
.....

I see others have already advised you to have a pro
tidy up your razor. This is highly recommended for the
reasons others have given...

The question about the Arkansas hone is interesting
and could present you with a disappointment.

It may be possible to use a dense fine Arkansas and
get a finish close to an 8K hone but a natural Arkansas
is not an 8K hone. Freshly lapped the Arkansas will
reflect the lapping method and may act a lot rougher
than the individual grains in the stone. After use and
when smoothly broken in the tops of the individual grains
may polish and with a practiced hand finish an
edge much much finer than the measured dimensions
of the grit in the hone might indicate.

You can try it...
Break in the Arkansas with a block of common steel.
Then lightly hone the razor....
The CrOx will polish/ improve the edge if your hand was light enough.
i.e. The edge could turn out just fine or not. Likely not...

Since all Arkansas stones are naturally variable and different
it is hard for us to guess. A new hone does need to be broken in.

If you want a good shave and an experience with a sharp
razor as a reference have a professional hone it.

Good Luck is right when one gets advice like these.

As you already have a DE you already know what is the result of shaving sharp.

Chromium dioxide is an abrasive, you can see that it removes metal quite easily. put some on a cloth and rub in on steel. Why is it no longer green?

Perhaps you can purchase a middle stone 3-5k.

Hopefully yours is a vintage stone of famous brand. That would be nice. Follow some sharpening instructions, video found on this site and learn to sharpen. PM some chaps who use these type oil stones which you can discover in threads on arkansas hones.

You may continue to finish your shaves with DE until you have made your dovo ready. It may take a little time to figure out. It is easy and you can do it.

I got into straight razor shaving by picking up an Arkansas translucent and a worn, slightly warped blade.

Like you, I'd been using a DE, so I knew what shaving-sharp was. However, I didn't achieve it with that setup for a while.

Possible, yes. Recommended, no.

Originally Posted by northpaw

However, I didn't achieve it with that setup for a while.

Possible, yes. Recommended, no.

Agreed, agreed, agreed.

I know of people who have been shaving with a straight most of their lives and used only Arkansas stones. They can get a shaving edge off the stone but have been pleased with the improvment in the sharpness of the edge when other stones were used as finishers, i.e. a Thuringen type of hone as an example.

Here at SRP we try to help new guys by giving advice on effective, repeatable methods and efficient tools that work within a reasonable length of time. Using the Arkansas stones for str8 razors has been discussed here for years simply because they are so available here in the USA. Unfortunately, no comprehensive, effective methodology has been put together. Those of us who have used them find that the other available stones are much more suited to str8 razors, especially for beginners.

Just my $.02,

You have got some good advice, particularly from Kevint.

If you do want to 'do-it-yourself' it is handy to have another, pro-honed blade for comparison - but not essential. A lower grit hone is essential IMO, as grit ratings applied to translucent arkansas hones are largely redundant.

I used to use one all the time, and a mighty fine finisher it was (that's not to say they all are, though). It came after a Mueller (MST) water hone in my progression. It took a lot of laps to produce the edge, but the edges achieved were incredible.

I have seen Mastro Livi finish on a translucent white - can't be bad, eh?!

What Tom (niftyshaving) said about the finish of the stone is sound - I have dressed grinding wheels with a coarse rake to lower the (apparent) grit, and trued them up again to achieve an (apparent) finer grit. It works. I had a Dragons Tongue hone that I left coarse-lapped on one side and fine-lapped on the other for the same reason.

+1 on chromium oxide (the green chromium (III) oxide) being an abrasive - corundum crystalline structure and around 8 - 8.5 on the Mohs scale, corundum being 9 and diamond 10.

Regards,
Neil

Smoothfacedprince, I am eager to find out what your decided course of action was. I know I went against common recommendations by honing a razor earlier than I should have, but it had a ding in it and I wanted to try my hand at honing. Luckily it turned out alright for me, but I figured If I really gooned it up I could always send it in. Making mistakes is part of the process, right?