Pro-edge soft arkansas stone/hone

[Zeke]

Hello all,

Newbie and first post. Here goes....

First I would like to tip my hat to everyone here. There is such a wealth of information, it is truly unbelievable.

Second, I would like to personally thank Tony Miller for the excellent products I received from him. Outstanding.

I recently received a new, never used Pro-edge soft arkansas stone off ebay. I really only bid because a twice used Dovo "Lame Evidee" came with it. So this might have been covered already, but I am unable to find it in the forums, which I have been lurking around as a guest for about 3 months now. The question is this: This stone is an "oil" stone. Does that mean I have to use oil, or can I use water instead? Will soaking it in water damage the stone, will it work as well as if using the oil?

Also along these same lines, the direction sheet that came with the stone says the "soft" is used for preliminary honing. If anybody has this stone, or is educated on it, what would you guess the grit to be? Due to a tight budget, I have this stone and a swaty in new condition. Can these two stones be enough to get started on restoring some older straights I have, and get them close to shave ready? I do have one of Tony Miller's 4 sided paddle strops, pre-pasted, along with two of his hanging strops. I believe in my mind that I can achieve some close to shave ready razor's with this setup.

Also, I understand that the norton is a very popular choice, which I will be getting soon, but, can anybody give me some insight to the quality of the "Pro-edge" Arkansas stones?


I just want to hear some of your opinions before I dive in honing, only to find out that I am just spinning my wheels and getting no-where because of improper or inadequate hones.

Thanks in advance.
Dave "Zeke" Veleke
Eden, WI

[FiReSTaRT]

Welcome aboard Zeke. I've been getting some excellent shaves only using the Norton 4k/8k, but I will be using abrasive pastes for the finishing touches soon. If your stone is an oil-stone, that's what you have to use with it. My suggestion is to get some mineral oil from the pharmacy. A bottle will cost you $2 and it will be great for your hone, for preserving any carbon steel items that you have, oiling hinges, oiling machinery and a few other things (even as a laxative lol). As I have no experience with AK-stones I won't say much more about it. Good luck and enjoy!

[mparker762]

Hi Zeke,

I'm one of the few guys around here that uses arkansas stones extensively. I've used both the hard and translucent arkansas, but never the soft. However, if the soft arkansas is all you've got, then it can probably be made to work, but it won't work as well as the higher grades of stone. You'll have to keep a very light touch, and you might want to invest in a tube of boron carbide from handamerican.com, and a piece of thin cardboard from your local grocery store or hobby store or arts supply store for putting the finishing touch on the edge.

As for using the arkansas stone, you'll need to make sure the stone is lapped very flat. Unlike with the waterstones, there's no slurry to help buffer the edge as it scrapes along the hone, so every little imperfection in the stone's surface tends to negatively affect the edge. On the plus side, you can clearly feel the edge develop on the stone.

To lap the stone, get a sheet of 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper, get it wet and place the paper side down on your countertop. Then rub the arkansas stone back and forth in an X motion until it's flat. This can take awhile, arkansas stones are surprisingly tough.

I tried using oil on the arkansas stones, but got consistently poor results with it. The purpose of the oil is to keep the blade lubricated and prevent the swarf from clogging up the pores in the stone. There's some controversy among the knife and chisel communities as to whether water or oil works better at this. For razors, water seems to work much better than oil, and lather seems to work better yet, providing excellent lubrication and keeping the stone very clean. Unlike with the waterstones, the arkansas stone isn't soaked at all, just spritz on some water, smear on a dab of lather, and go to work.

You can use a little bit of pressure, but the arkansas stone isn't a very fast cutter. However, you can swipe the blade pretty fast, much faster than you can with a waterstone, so the laps go pretty fast.

I don't think a soft arkansas will get the blade sharp enough for a comfortable shave, so you'll want to pick up a tube of boron carbide from handamerican.com, and smear a dab of this on some thin cardboard (posterboard) which you can probably get from the grocery store, or just take the backboard from a notepad. Strop the blade on this for 10-15 laps after you've gotten the blade as sharp as you can get it on the soft arkansas, and that should do the trick.

[Zeke]

Should I use my swaty for finish? If so, in place of the cardboard, or before or after?

[mparker762]

Oops, sorry, I didn't read your entire post, and didn't realize you had the additional hones. Just use the soft arkansas for the rough honing, then once it's popping hairs you can move to the swaty, then to the pasted strop. You don't mention which swaty you've got, or what grits you've got on the paddle, but once you leave the swaty then move to the 1 micron side of the paddle.

[PuFFaH]

Hi Zeke
I use Arkansas stones all the time in my work,(boatbuilder), so I would not recomend the soft grey at all for razors. It is a course stone and as described, quite soft. I use my soft grey for a preliminary hone because it cuts fast and course and removes nicks quickly ready for my hard white to finish to a razor edge.

I use washing-up liquid and water as my Arkansas lubricant so I dont pass on oil to my work. This works well but to be honest liquid parafin (oil) is better and seems to cut faster.

My fine stones are Washita and belgium hones, left to me by a retired boatbuilder which he remarked were his fathers before him. Both these stones would be great for razors but being natural products you would have to be sure they are consistant across thier surface. I say this because I have 2 hard white Arkansas stones and only one is fit to produce a fine edge, the other has differing grades along its length which cause it to never back the wire edge.

as a foot note: I use Rottonstone powder on one of my strops on the linen side with lather, followed by a good pressing with a bottle. This dressing seems to bring back an edge on my razor when all else fAILS.

PuFF

[mparker762]

I use washing-up liquid and water as my Arkansas lubricant so I dont pass on oil to my work. This works well but to be honest liquid parafin (oil) is better and seems to cut faster.

I use shaving lather as a lubricant on my fine translucent arkansas stone, which seems to do a good job of keeping the stone from clogging up while allowing the stone to produce a very fine edge. For my hard arkansas bench hone I use hand soap and water which seems to work pretty well. I've never been a big fan of oil on arkansas stones, eventually the stone clogs up and has to be resurfaced.

[PuFFaH]

A trick i use to stop them clogging is setting a rare earth magnet at either end of the hone, this seems to take all the particles away from the stone quite well. Just a quick splash of fluid to free the gunk then push it al to the magnet if it hasn't already cought the particles.

PuFF

[Zeke]

You guys are the best. I mean it. I think I will invest in the norton or some harder arkansas's and start there. The soft arkansas should be good for initial cutting on the razor and then on to finer stones.

I will try all the methods you guys are talking about as I get the appropriate stones. Thanks again.

Zeke

[Joe Chandler]

Another option for using oilstones is kerosene. You can buy it at Wally World for about $3 a gallon (which should last you the rest of your life). It's thinner than honing or mineral oil, works better, and keeps your oilstones much cleaner (they don't clog up). They'll cut better using kerosene than with any oil available.