Thread: Arkansas Stones

Originally Posted by ezpz

my understanding was that a surgical black was a hard black, but not all hard blacks were surgical blacks.. can anyone comment?

never heard that before i know that dans whetstones grades their stones like this soft, hard ,true hard trans/black

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Soft, whashita, hard, translucent, finished on a black ( gold test quality).

the first two stone's are backwards in your progression washita soft hard trans/black. washita is the coarsest stone in an ark progression unless its a lily white washita.

my progression on the arks depends if the razor is a half hollow or a wedge i'll use this progression indian fine oil stone to set the bevel then washita ,soft , hard ,trans/black have you preped your trans or black yet randy?

Originally Posted by eleblu05

the first two stone's are backwards in your progression washita soft hard trans/black. washita is the coarsest stone in an ark progression unless its a lily white washita.

Thanks for the comment ......but........ not with the stones I have. Mine is a labeled #1 Washita and the other is a labeled Lily White. Both are finer, based on usage, than my soft Ark. However, I also have 2 unlabeled whites that are coarser than the Lily White or the #1. Yet they are all finer than the soft Ark's that I have. It seems to really vary with the individual stone that each person has and only actual usage will determine its place in the honing process.

your washita #1 is that stone from norton/pike ? yeah the #1 and lily white are a finer stone then the soft ark they come in around 800 grit , the razor coming off of that stone should be around 3-4k in fineness of the edge there not much different in the lily white and the hard its a 200 grit difference

OMG Really!!! that's just, OMG impressive!!
Good job on you HAD, my hats off to you mate!!

wow you guys are going from 10/12k water stones into a black ark? thats interesting. Those water stones leave such a higher polish and smoother edge than any of the black and traslucent stones I have...
I've tried going fine india, soft, hard, black, black translucent on my cheap razor, it is a veeeeeery slow process. It seems to get super sharp right at the start of the hard ark, but as soon as I hit the black, the edge just sucks after about 100 laps. I think its because i've only done this with my ZY cheapo razor, and it has a twisted edge making it hard to hone anyway.